Rave wear enters the studio as costume and leaves as engineering. Reflective panels are a visibility system. Belt bags are load distribution. Platform sneakers are a materials problem with a social history, and the studio treats all three with citation-grade seriousness.
Dr. Kim's summer practicum submits festival garments to actual peer review: stretch tests, pocket audits, a low-light visibility walk, and a crowd-navigation trial conducted at regrettable volume.
A fit can be loud and still be disciplined.
The findings publish each fall and are read far outside the department, mostly for the footnotes. Design that survives a dance floor, the abstract notes, rarely fails a hallway.
- Filed by
- Dr. Andrea Kim
- Desk
- Arts
- Term
- Summer 2026