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Research GrantWork Wear & Tear
2023-2024

in collaboration with
Caroline Stahl
Sophie Nguyentran
Sydney Sinclair
Sabrina Ramsay
Valeria Velazquez
Zephaniah Romualdo

Taubman College Architectural Student Research Grant
ArtsEngine Student Micro Grant
Arts Integrative Interdiscliplinary Research Grant

WORKWEAR&TEAR INSTAGRAM

Workplace architecture overtly favors the male body. This is observed in all non-domestic workplaces, from the construction site to high rise corporate offices. The idealized worker is envisioned as a man in a full length suit at a corner office, or a man performing hard labor in rigid cotton work wear. Through ebbs of cultures and the flow of protest, gendered exclusivity within the workplace began to disintegrate, and women’s workwear manifested as reiterated forms of the accepted male work uniform. This failed to recognize and accommodate the differing needs of the non-male body in space.

WORKWEAR&TEAR investigates the shortcomings of this uniform to meet the needs of all workers, and to counter these failures through a range of modifiable work-wear pieces that return bodily agency to the non-male worker.

WORKWEAR&TEAR occupies three realms of development. The Unreal realm simulates and satirizes the workplace scenarios to collect and synthesize qualitative data on the needs of the wearers in shifting environments. The Real realm constructs, assembles, and prototypes adaptable, agency granting wearables. The final realm, Publication and Distribution, will make WORKWEAR&TEAR an accessible resource for wearers to gain agency of their bodily comfort through wearables.

The first realm of development began with research and data collection. The team conducted interviews with women in varying workplace environments — an architecture office, a woodworking space, a coffee shop — and began with a simple question,

“What’s in your bag?”

These interviews provided insight into all the items that women come equipped with on a daily basis, and with each item came a story of its relevance. Photos of the limitless containment of each woman’s purse was taken and thus the Unreal team got to work. The goal was to digitally create a fantastical, whimsical, satirical series work environments to simulate how workplaces feel due to the comfort misfitting between the imagined male user and the real female user. These environments become situations for the Real team to design and prototype their garments within. In addition to this media, the Unreal team also created process videos in tandem with physical garment production. Real artifacts are bridged into the Unreal world through photogrammetry, motion capture, and digital modeling as the Real team simultaneously prototypes new digital workflows, combining architecture, gaming, and textile design software to create an integrated design process.

WORKWEAR&TEAR believes that the dynamic relationship between physical and digital ways of working generates unique knowledge sets. From ideation to execution, the team understands both the seams that hold each garment together and the lines of code that manifest them in the digital world. As data collection ideated into digital satire and physical mock-ups, a statement for WORKWEAR&TEAR served as an origin point for all process and progress:

^“^{In a physical sense, women often come equipped to any situation with a large arsenal of tools in their bags, purses, or hands in order to accommodate themselves and others in spaces that sterilize or neglect the needs of non-males and their comfort.

In a theoretical and practical sense, this can be attributed to the foundations of office design and their adherence to male comfort and ideas of taking up space. This in effect produces the notion that women must create their own comforts in spaces. A sort of makeshift-office within the boundless containment of their purses.

What is Mary Poppins bag other than a large storage room of comforts for the children she cares for? And what would it look like as male- presenting? A briefcase? A satchel?

A pocket? Finally! A pocket!}

In a fantastical sense, women are more prepared for any disaster than any man. They carry their comfort with them and offer those comforts to others in the form of a mint, an advil, a tampon, a candy, a coin, a lost earring, a weathered receipt holding an old piece of gum, a loose rubber band functioning as a ponytail, a trinket, a tissue, a bobby pin, a paperclip, a safety pin, a hairbrush, a card, anything, and subsequently everything.

In a misogynistic sense, this notion is attributed towards women as a detriment to their productivity and relationship to capital,

“Are you the consumers or the CEOs?”

Yet, when a man has a splitting headache after talking to a board room full of other men, they come to a woman, any woman, and ask for medication, because they know they will have it. And they always do!

In a matriarchal sense, this is our greatest strength. We rely on ourselves, children rely on us, men depend on us, and yet society holds no space to acknowledge us.

So let’s make it obvious, let’s make it literal, let’s make it fantastical, let’s make it extravagant,

let’s make it hilarious, let’s make it cute, let’s make it big, let’s make it whimsical.

^{Let’s make it fashion!”}

The final realm of design, Publication and Distribution, explores methods of archiving and exhibiting the final designs and media. The exhibition for the project was held at Liberty Annex in Ann Arbor on February 16th, 2024. The exhibition showcased the digital, the physical, and the archival elements of the project.

The final garments include: Computer Puffy Poncho, Reversible Work Jacket, Work Pant, Heater Scarf Roll Bag, Welding Ensemble, Waterliner Skirt, Puffer Shrug, Removable Peplum Chemise, Commuter Cross, Adjustable Neckline Chemise, Pocket Pleat Dress, Mousepad Glove, Barista Apron, Barista Trainers, Cool Base Bloomers, Warm Base Turtle Neck.

The garments were suspended in air within a series of three constructed cubes that allowed for visitors to explore every seam, every pocket, and every angle. Televisions were mounted with accompanied headphones for individuals to watch all three Unreal cinematic shorts and a projector displayed all the digital garments in full rotation.. In addition, mounted between the media was process work, all the muslin mock-up garments, and an open source pattern pamphlet for each and every garment design. From beginning to end, the team hoped that all visitors were able to explore the pursuit and arrival of each design. Finally, a WORKWEAR&TEAR book was vacuum-formed, suspended, and angularly mounted against the wall for individuals to flip through and see process sketches, fully transcribed interviews, test-fitting photos, documentation of personal garments cherished by the team, and a page to sign to encapsulate the night.

The book serves as the final artifact of WORKWEAR&TEAR, featuring work-wear fabric attached to acrylic front and back cover, bound with shower curtain rings, grommeted and pierced for a grungy appearance, and various page transparencies to play with the writing and images.

While WORKWEAR&TEAR is a research project, it is also, at its core, an art and craft process. Though it gathers evidence based around discussion of the practical application of clothing for women in the ubiquitous workplace, the essence of the project is truly resolved through art—the concept of women’s workwear itself relies on the fact that its identity and spirit is tied to an element more than utilitarianism, perhaps something akin to empathy.

Test Fittings with Muslin Mock-ups:

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Cabinet of Curiosities