Sasha Makarewicz - “‘I Yam What I Yam!’: The Modernist Performance of Popeye The Sailor” (MRP)

Abstract
Drawing on theories of fashion, auto/biography, gender, and material culture, this Major Research Paper builds on the premise that fashion objects such as garments and accessories, including body art, have stories and histories of their own that intersect with the wearer’s life narratives. This project culminates in an art exhibition entitled "Fashioning Life: ‘Wear’ Your Story,” which involves twelve women as "the designers” of their own life narrative. They are given a generic garment made from canvas, designed by the author, onto which they apply any technique or medium of self-expression, such as paint, film, text, collage, sewing, or applique. They are directed to tell a story about a specific life experience, so that the canvas garment becomes an autobiographical telling, or in other words, a fashion narrative.