This piece was the foundation of my Senior Thesis project for my Senior Design class. “Worn Stories” is a clothing collection constructed from secondhand denim, exploring the emotional and cultural histories embedded in discarded garments. Through faces, weaves, and silhouettes, this project reactivates material memory and invites viewers to see their own identities reflected in the work.

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Each garment reflects the lives and identities of those who previously wore them, and who wear them now.

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One of the featured pieces, titled “Face Me,” showcases a black denim bomber jacket adorned with layered denim faces, symbolizing a collective presence of memory and human connection. Alongside it, a woven denim jacket and a purse made with both woven scraps and a thrifted blanket continue the dialogue between past and present. The act of cutting, reassembling, and stitching these pieces becomes a gesture of preservation—celebrating denim’s cultural legacy while embracing its potential for new narratives. In “Worn Stories,” the fabric’s wear, fade, and fray are not flaws but living records of time, labor, and individuality.

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The installation is accompanied by a series of photographs featuring different individuals wearing the jackets, further expanding the narrative held within each piece. Their distinct identities and expressions infuse the garments with new meaning, layering contemporary presence onto the fabric’s already rich past. Mirrors placed throughout the installation invite viewers to see themselves within the work—both literally and metaphorically—prompting reflection on their own relationship to clothing, memory, and identity. In this way, the collection becomes a living archive shaped not only by those who once wore these materials, but also by those who engage with them now.