Jacqueline Wagner
Chinatown
Prompt: As a group and as individuals we were tasked with exploring one neighborhood. Through what we gathered by research, studying the site, and interviewing people there we each designed an “artifact” to represent an aspect of our collective research with which we felt most aligned. Although we each created our own, there remains elemental cohesion, our artifacts being able to speak in conversation with one another to tell the story of our neighborhood.
To represent both the Chinese culture that is the foundation of Chinatown along with the diversity I have witnessed there, and to honor the neighborhood’s historical connection to the garment industry, I sewed a modern take on the classic Chinese dress known as a qi pao or cheongsam. This style of dress has a rich history in and of itself, with the transformation of the cut and style of it reflecting women’s rights and place in society over the last centuries.