As written on the back of the jacket:
“A jacket made up of memories - an ode to my life growing up, mostly in NYC. Documenting & preserving two decades worth of experiences & people I never want to forget. Made by yours truly. Dec 2019. Nathaly Delacruz.”
This is not a garment, it is a wearable sculpture that preserves twenty-one years worth of stories. Every piece caught between two layers of yellow (my favorite color) vinyl is intentional and captures a part of my life that I wish to remember. A page from the play ‘Antigone’ pays homage to my four years in acting school, while my fashion sketches nod toward my current education in fashion design. The Dominican Republic flag shouts out to where my family is from, while the Bronx graffiti tags where I am from. The NYC subway map is pleated to highlight the places I have spent the most time at in NYC. The white bandana is reminiscent of high school and there are photographs of me in different stages of my life. The “Hello” guide from the Metropolitan Museum of Art represents my status as an arts finalist for their 2012 arts competition, and the Arabic greeting written above it is one example on this jacket to show that I am a polyglot. The yellow flowers are from the home decor of my first apartment, in Harlem. Newspaper clippings mark the environmental and political climate taking place during the making of this jacket, for this will one day be a vintage piece of the past and fashion mirrors the current events that take place in society. The pink wish papers along the collar and spread about are wishes written to me by coworkers at my Adidas 2019 internship; words I want to carry with me from people I will always carry with me.
A pair of pants were made, patterned and fit to myself (after all, it is my personal story), with the same fabric manipulation applied to the bottom. A metrocard (the symbol of my NY adventures and getting around to experience all the stories that I have to share) is suspended in the back pocket.
This garment was featured in the ‘Black In Time’ Exhibition at the Fashion institute of Technology (see below).
BLACK IN TIME EXHIBITION | FEBRUARY 2020 - The ‘Black In Time’ exhibition took place in the Pomerantz building lobby at the Fashion Institute of Technology, during Black History Month 2020. The exhibition shared Black History beyond the tired stories of slavery and segregation. Through art, decades and centuries worth of stories were shared, having taken place over time. Nathaly Delacruz’s ‘Preservation of Memories’ jacket hung from the ceiling of the lobby in the Futuristic Sportswear section, representing a part of the futuristic fashion design of the diaspora.
