COLLECTION

Christian Reid Mironovic's "LOLITA" collection is the culmination of both his academic career and his artistic expression. Combining the two most prominent avenues of his passion - Fashion and Literature - he created the "LOLITA" collection to act as a physical response and critique to Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel of the same name. Aiming to dismantle the established "love"-centered perception of what Lolita has been in pop culture, he created a raw, gritty, and artistic collection inspired by the symbols of the Northeast, Gothic silhouettes, and the text itself. 

Though much of what ended up being utilized was largely self-taught, it was equally an exercise in combining everything he had learned from Freshman year to the present; sketching, illustrating, pattern-making, draping, drafting, constructing, fitting, and styling. I wanted to combine my education with his passions, and thus the collection heavily featured things like crochet, jewelry, and knits, as well as woven fabrics to reach a wide breadth of represented skills. 

Each look is meant to symbolize a different stage or element of the text. Hence, the names, looks one, three, and five, are the stages in which Dolores is turned into Lolita, the creation of Humbert, and the perception that the girl is often most known for. As the looks progress, she slowly loses her color and grace, becoming more distressed and confined to the label of "Lolita". Elements like crochet, corseting, and distressing are meant to embody the themes of corruption that Dolores underwent, as methods of garment construction that cannot be or are difficult to mimic over a machine and thus require hands-on treatment.

 The menswear looks also communicate the role that the male antagonist plays within the text. Featuring ill-fitting and slouchy silhouettes, rugged textiles, and patterns that are meant to replicate the fit of womenswear, each look represents the way in which Humbert portrays himself as a well-respected gentleman despite the monster he is in reality.