Screenprint Cut-Out Tunic: Armor/Vulnerability Collection

Happy New Year! It's time to start blogging about fashion again. For my first post of the year, I wanted to show you this cut-out screen printed sweatshirt tunic I have been working on last year as part of the armor/vulnerability collection I have been working on and wrote about here. This is the third piece. The two that I showed before had a faux lace print (the beige dress and the grey sweatshirt). This one has a print made from a picture I took of a gate. For this post, I'll also share a little of my creative process with you.  

Here's the picture I took of a gate in front of a building near the Central Park Zoo two summers ago.

I played around with design ideas on Photoshop

I decided on the image which seemed playful.

First image from www2.prgov. Second image from sangriataina.webs.com

I was not trying to channel Taino imagery in any way but the print ended up looking a little like el Sol de Jayuya. El Sol de Jayuya is a petroglyph shaped like a sun found in the town of Jayuya, Puerto Rico. Many of these petroglyphs were carved by Taino natives which inhabited the island before 1493. 

I screened and printed it onto this deconstructed sweatshirt. The idea of the gate was to symbolize armor and the cut- outs were meant to represent vulnerability.

Front and back. The front consists of three panels and the back is one solid piece. 

The cut-out ended up a little lower than I wanted. I plan to do a sweatshirt version where the cut-outs will be higher.

Note to self: take your hair elastic off your wrist before you take pictures.

Would love to hear your thoughts. These will all be going up in my shop for custom orders soon.