Jasmine Jury

Commentary of unresolved questions within contemporary expression

The female body is subject to the question of what we are allowed to wear, and when? The False Self is a response to the overwhelming expectations of dress. Set against D.W. Winnicott’s theory of he false self amongst other social and psychoanalytic theories, the collection places the socially expected outer layer, in stricter tailored pieces of tweed and suiting, against the organic, innate self, in material-led tulle placements, while subverting garment archetypes to comment on historical regulation. Whether this is our false self, the front region, or performativity, we dress not only for ourselves but also for others, for the public gaze.

The sweatsuit reads as a contemporary false self, and is inserted through references as a disruption of traditional tailoring. Disrupting in this way allows for interaction between different ‘falses’ or expectations of how we should dress, contributing to the overwhelming feeling of the collection representing this overwhelming sense of dress expectations.

The project contributes to the wider conversation of communication of identity through dress. The way we dress is a large part of how we express ourselves to others. When the false self overrides, then how true is our identity and expression?