ITAI Jacket
Yumelixir
Regular price
$135.00
- concept...
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The concept behind this jacket was created by Crystal Le, an artist Yumelixir collaborated with back in 2019. The original design was created in the “Menhera” style, geared towards the kawaii fashion crowd.
In effort to rebrand Yumelixir to a more dark wear/cyber street style to incorporate a gender-neutral feel, this jacket was the first project to move towards this change.
Keeping the original concept in mind, the kanji "痛" on the back of the jacket reads “itai” or “it hurts.” The digital distortion on the kanji becomes more intense with each iteration of the character, representing the stages of destructive anxiety. It can be challenging to express this feeling into words, but showing how anxiety can be a slow, corrosive kind of build up into extreme pain was a feeling the designer wanted to express in this artwork. We hope that those who know this feeling understand that they are not alone and are supported by others who know what they are going through.
On the front of the jacket, the melty heart from the original design was translated into a circuit heart, tying into the cyber theme. The word “error” carries that theme, as well as subtly alluding to the emotions felt when experiencing anxiety.
New to this design are the sleeve details. On the left sleeve, the katakana characters "
メルトダウン" read “meltdown” alongside the english word “panic!” continuing to embody the anxiety concept in this jacket’s artwork.
However, the right sleeve serves as the support. The kanji and hiragana characters "一人じゃない" at the top reads “I’m not alone” and the scannable QR code patch links to our webpage full of mental health resources and information! Should the wearer ever need a reminder that they aren’t alone, need a hotline to dial up, want to find information on certain mental health topics, or even want to share this with others, the QR code has all that information just at your fingertips.
And should the wearer ever want to put their own personal touch onto the jacket, the QR patch is removable and another patch can be added to the sleeve!
