Natalie Dawson

As a Chicana I have permanently lived in the space between the hyphen in Mexican and American. The duality of the clash of my two cultures has defined my work attempting to bridge the unfamiliar indigenous Mexican aspect visually represented at a surface level in my skin, hair, and eye color with the familiar Anglo-dominated American melting pot I am native to. I attempt to explore how to connect the indigenous with Anglo-American culture in dress using the language of materials and how indigenous dress interacts with a dominating culture pursuing a modern translation. Sustainability is achieved by using natural dyes, fabric binding with paper raffia, and found vintage fabric to slow the manufacturing process in order to create unique unreproducible garments.