“PTSD: Prisoners of the Past” is a sculptural fashion collection and musical production that addresses the emotional and psychological effects of sexual abuse on the mind and body through dress form. The collection reveals how such effects can sculpt and fashion a victim’s identity and quality of life for years after the abuse.
Each look within the collection represents different reactions to traumatic experiences, such as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and maladaptive defense mechanisms, that can paradoxically play a part in re-traumatization and re-victimization if these past experiences are never addressed; each look reveals the ways in which a victim can remain prisoner to their past as long as their story is not told, processed, and developed.
Commenting on the pervasive denial of sexual abuse in our culture, the collection reveals the fundamental psychological effects that denial and silence has on its victims. Left up to the victim’s limited perception, combined with shameful victim blaming sociocultural messages around sexual abuse, sexual assault, and rape, the victim’s interpretations of these traumatic experiences often result in self-blame, shame, and self-hatred. These interpretations create the fundamental framework in which the victims view themselves and the world around them. This framework feeds the narratives that they tell themselves repeatedly, and in turn, create the stories that frame their sense of self, identity, and fabricate their reality.
History is destined to repeat itself if denied and left in the shadows of the unconscious, further installing, penetrating, and procreating unprocessed traumas into future generations. Furthermore, the collection warns its viewers of the cost and effect of repressing and denying one's past, foreshadowing the transmission of intergenerational traumas.
