Emily Good

Excerpts from an Interview with the Designer

Recorded on: March 22 2023

Tell me about your collection!

My collection is a storytelling, it’s very 60s inspired and eccentric.The story itself is about these lesbian lovers that are meeting at the laundromat. I wanted it to be like they just threw something on like, “oh my god, somebody's coming in”. They just had to throw whatever was in the basket on. It's all about different textures and colors that you would see at that time in a laundromat. I'm using different materials, like pop tabs, they remind me of the quarters that go in to purchase a drink there. And I'm using a blue PCV, that material that reminds me of the window part of the washers and dryers. I want a lot of layering and femininity in my collection.

Why the 60s?

I've always been really into 60s pop art, and pop culture art. Those colors and, where it's a line from reality, cartoon strips remind of that. I really like that part of art, and a lot of my work comes through that.

What role does femininity play in your collection?

The silhouettes play a huge role, and all my models are female too. The colors and also 60s at the laundromat are very feminine. Even though women were a more submissive role at that time, this is what they did, and this story is almost like these women's escape from that. Their husbands are not there, this is where only women go, the laundromat. It’s just them and the girls, a secret place to be. But not secret because it’s public.

What challenges have you been facing?

Just timing. A lot of these looks take a lot of time. I've just finished one of the skirts with pop tabs and that took 60 hours. And then just like trying to juggle other classes.

How do you balance having creating for yourself and creating for an audience?

Especially since this is our collection, it's been a lot easier, I get to put whatever I want. I think in the workforce, that'll be something that I could potentially struggle with more. But I'm just so excited for my friends and family to see what I do. And what I've been doing for all these years, I feel like they just hear about me drawing and sketching. So the pressure of having an audience is more so, in this instance, motivating, because I want to put my best work out there. I think the storytelling might be harder. Because everybody will have their own interpretation of each look. I feel like we've [designers] seen mood boards and inspiration and all the sketches. And so we know everybody's ideas prior, but not seeing any of it before, will the audience pick up what each of us are trying to relay? It's exciting though.

What is fashion to you?

There’s this Bill Cunningham quote that says “fashion is our daily armor”. I really like that: every day no matter what, you put on something that you're most comfortable in, to take on the daily tasks. I also feel like it's another medium of art, and I like to try to dip my toes in everything. I used to weld a little bit back in the day, and I feel like fashion is the next medium for me. But I don't know if it'll be forever. I got into fashion through environmental sustainability. A lot of my work is from secondhand fabrics, and my family and friends have collected these pop tabs for me. I'm trying to use little to no new fabric for myself, to know that I can create something out of stuff that's already here on the earth without making my footprint bigger.