This Radical Wearable is inspired by the women in my family. My family is from Eritrea, and whenever I go back home to Asmara (the capital of Eritrea) I have always paid attention to the decor of every household I have entered. Each household typically has the same style of home decor. One common thing is the use of floral fabrics. At my aunt's house, the window curtains are a floral lace, the blankets are a blue and pink floral pattern, the couches are a light brown floral pattern, etc. The dishware also have different floral patterns as well, cups, plates, etc. Everything in the house has a floral pattern, but it’s almost subtle. Some of the colors are muted, but overall to the Western culture eyes, everything seems tacky. I’ve never completely understood why they think every floral patterned fabric matches anything else that is floral, but I do find comfort in it. In each photograph, old family photographs are used as a decor. My mothers photo of her in her 20's is sitting in the kitchen, as well as a photo of me when I was 2 holding my baby sister. Usually, people from my culture never really put photos in frames that fit them. Sometimes the photos are too big or too small for the frame. The photo in the bedroom is a photo of me and my 2 younger sisters sitting on my parents bed with the exact same comforters and pillows used as a prop for the photographs I have created. For my Radical Wearable, I chose a bunch of bright floral patterned fabrics that I didn’t think match well together to make it extremely dramatic. In the photos, my cousin (who is also Eritrean) is performing some domestic tasks, such as- folding laundry, holding a laundry basket, serving dinner, waiting for her kids/husband to come home and looking out the window to see if they have made it home. These are things that I have noticed culturally in Eritrea, it is common for the women to do all the domestic duties in the household as soon as they are able to start walking.
