Fashion Design
Nicole Clifford
The Divine, The Femme, The Dyke
This Collection responds to the experience of performing femininity and the societal pressure to be a forever young and consumable woman. As a child, Nicole navigated her gender expression through a heteronormative lens. She identified the triple Pagan goddess the Maiden, Mother and Crone as an idealized symbol of femininity, a mirror of how her own femininity should look throughout her life – a virginal maiden , a nurturing mother and a wise crone. Embracing her lesbian identity reshaped Nicole’s understanding of her feminiety, rejecting the preformance of a delicately traditional and infantilized version in favor of a more empowered and sensual expression. Becoming the promiscuous lusting maiden rather than preforming the virginal one. The Divine, The Femme, The Dyke, embodies a femineity that is unrestricted, divinely transgressive and deeply erotic. Taking inspiration from a 1520 etching named Lo Stregozzo (the Carcass) by Agostino Veneziano, the garments in this collection reflect the journey of the triple goddess to the sabbath on a twisted carcass. Drawing on the contorting figures in the etching as well as sculpture Succubus Demon by Naemi Smith, the structured silhouettes and flowing drapery, influenced by the triple goddess, weave a narrative throughout the collection, striking a harmonious balance between constraint and liberation. The color palette is flesh-toned, oozing, and somber: Gentle pink, crimson red, and the deepest black, resembling blood. The red hues holds special symbolism, embodying the first blood, the bleed of afterbirth and the last bleed. In this sense, the color scheme adopts a persona and mirrors the archetype of the Maiden, Mother, and Crone.