Parsons BFA 2025 Thesis Collection
What is left when you are gone? In Case of My Death a response to this question by examining the importance of heirlooms and how these material possessions come to define us after our passing. These precious objects outlive our temporal bodies and our interaction with them plays a vital part in understanding ourselves in a greater context.
In this collection, I am exploring this phenomenon by unearthing family articles such as quilts, hair, and journals, and connecting them to stories, ultimately building the greater narrative of personal history while incorporating aspects of my own identity and juxtaposing them with historical reference. This collection investigates how memory is kept alive through inherited objects. It explores what is precious and how we relate to these physical traces on a familial level.
Look I: The Ancestor – Hand appliquéd braid top from vintage scraps. Bodice made from a vintage pillow case with cotton organdy sleeves and colorful bias tape finishings. Wrap shorts are cotton canvas with patch pocket and bloomers underneath. 
Look II: The Heirloom – Pieced wrap house dress made from over 350 individual pieces of vintage feedsack and second hand fabric scraps with 4 panels of appliqué/embroidery. 
Look III: The Bride – Altered pretty housemaid corset made from vintage feed sacks overlayed in cotton organdy. Skirt is cotton organdy with a feedsack yoke and petticoat made from tea dyed vintage table clothes. 
Look IV: The Letter – Patchwork skirt with cotton lace panels and pieced feedsack pockets. Paired with pintuck top made from vintage cotton petticoats, featuring hidden word embroidery and vintage novelty buttons. 
Look V: Memory – Asymmetrical gown made from vintage table clothes with a feedsack and organdy “Pretty Housemaid” corset underneath.
Sadie Jo 