A cocoon is a silky web spun around the larvae of many insects. Caterpillars emerge from their cocoons as beautiful butterflies. The word cocoon can also represent a form of self-protection for humans. For some people, their house is a cocoon, a cozy retreat from which they can escape the world.

 

This dress is made from the plastic bags wrapped around my home deliveries of the Washington Post and New York Times. I transformed the bags into flowers and butterflies and spun them together into a cocoon around the body. Although the material used is all trash plastic and has no monetary value, my goal was to transform the trash into something artistic by incorporating sequins as imaginable drops of water.

 

Today, not only is there too much trash in the world, but people are trashing each other. I made this cocoon of plastic to protect the body. There is no “away” in this world; everything goes around and around.