Arabella Introduction/Overview 2019-2021

“Morose Design 2019-2021” Dec 6, 2021 (cont. April 29^th 2022, October 30^th 2025)

The Deconstruction of Mandys Designs, Fall 2019 - Fall 2021, 18 years to 20

An 8” Square Spiral Rhodia Dot Book containing drawings and notes on projects of 2019-2021. Deconstructed and bound in April 2022.

ARISE ARABELLA

These drawings are from another life that seems far away from me now. Over five years, a thousand miles and even more tears, Arabella is gone and all that is left is this book. She is a version of me, younger of course though wiser as she sits atop her tower for the rest of time. She is precious because she is gone, she is desired because she is no more, she is merely a legend whose legacy lives through the artifacts she left.

Arabella was born as a neatly thought-out book for serious projects. The intention for Arabella was a book filled with wardrobe and material designs, yet inevitably it depicts a morphing thought-train rolling through the ages of 18 to 20 years old. Fantasy and whimsy overtook the pages often, and she became a stamping pad, journal, sketchbook, etc. Her youthfulness produced grand ideas. Unfinished projects and unrealized visions plague the emergence of Arabella. It’s hard to tell what is real and what is not in this world. It is a theater of the mind.

I would protect this collection of designs and drawings for the years it came into being, only finally getting to know what I had cherished once it was complete. With fragments missing, Arabella was bound in finality in March 2022. I located everything I wanted to go into it, created simple paper covers, and bound each page to the last. I had to redo the binding halfway through the first attempt, it is silk thread finished with Elmers’s glue. I inked the front cover design hastily, so now it is another product which I feel ashamed about in the end. Inevitably, frustration beats me out and I abandon my standards for care and attention. The construction is satisfactory, about the same quality as a lot of the projects detailed in the contents of the pages.

The conclusion of this little book marks a significant ending in my life. As of 2025, I understand Arabella as an era of my life, and the Morose Design Book of 2019-2021 exists as a reference to that myth. I still have faith, in fact, it has only grown.

Final Thoughts, November 14, 2025

In 2019 and most of 2020, Arabella lives in a world of her own creation. She wakes up in the early morning to golden light passing through curtains she built to frame her room. After rising, Arabella prepares for the day as her bed airs out. In her closet there are many pretty dresses, each fulfills a fantasy. Whether it is to dance, go to the beach, or a fancy dinner, Arabella is prepared for anything she can imagine. Other than dresses, she likes to wear skirts, jeans and simple shirts. She hasn’t given too much thought about practical matters of dressing; she still dresses like she’s playing pretend.  Once done cleaning and dressing herself, she makes her bed by assembling her composition of pillows.

As far as style, she was a vintage girl by default. She was fascinated by deconstruction and reconstruction which gives a kind of degenerative quality to her wardrobe. For me, Mandy, I want to emulate this dynamic between historical design, modern freedom, and commentary on culture and sex. That’s a lot, but its obvious that all these things were driving forces in my vision for wardrobe even if I couldn’t articulate it then. It has taken time and space to realize what I was doing.

Towards the end of 2020, Arabella falls in love with a boy who is equally obsessed with creating and controlling the material around him. They become the main subject of each other’s creative direction, and everything else seems to fall away. They find themselves often in nature, where they can live simply as animals together. She uses her skills to begin realizing a handmade life in the wild with manmade materials. The introduction of sex into her life seems to dampen her desire to be seen and express her own sexuality.

The precision and vision of this book was slowly lost as it developed. Clean and organized pages turn into a visual soup of thoughts. Her designs cease to come into creation, and it becomes a book of dreams instead of record. This is reflected in her style as well, she begins to wear her boyfriends clothes and basically falls into depression of comfort. She grieves her own death, watches Arabella disappear behind her eyes.

The book concludes at the end of 2021 while her grandmother is dying. She had a strong connection to the matriarch of her family, the one who bestowed upon her beautiful dresses beginning her fascination. Arabella would not know how to cope with this loss, she was already suffering from feeling caged. The last few pages describe a plan to generally improve the quality of life of everyone around her. Scribbled with feverous passion, she was clearly in pain and did not know the remedy. It is a bizarre contradiction to have such conviction in wellbeing while obviously struggling.

CONTENTS AND OVERVIEW as told through articles and pages

On October 30, 2025, I started to curate and publish articles begun in 2021 about the work of Arabella during 2019-2021. The information on Arabella’s Wardrobe and Fabric Creations has been mostly filled out on this website as of November 8, 2025. This is a “final” overview of the original pages of her book and what they became as articles.

I have identified five categories relevant to wardrobe and sewing in “Morose Design 2019-2021”. Arabella went through phases of creation; though they overlap, there is a distinct flow of work that emerges over her lifespan.

Pages and Timeline

Pages 0-5b 2019

Pages 6-32b 2020

Pages 35-61 2021

Categories as they Arise – Each has it’s own corresponding article

Fabric Décor 2019-2020

Wardrobe Alteration Projects 2019-2021

Camp Seamstress 2021

Wardrobe Theory 2021

            Arabella’s Jeans

            Arabella’s Intervention

Original Creations 2021

List of Pages, Category and Year

pg3      Décor  2019

pg3b    Décor  2019

pg4      Décor  2019

pg4b    Décor  2019

pg5      Décor  2019

pg5b    Décor  2019

pg6      Alteration Projects    2020

pg6b    Alteration Projects    2020

pg11b  Alteration Projects    2020

pg12    Alteration Projects    2020

pg12b  Alteration Projects    2020

pg14    Alteration Projects    2020

pg19    Décor 2020

pg29    Alteration Projects    2020

pg29b  Alteration Projects    2020

pg35    Alteration Projects    2021

pg36    Camp Seamstress      2021

pg36b  Camp Seamstress      2021

pg37    Camp Seamstress      2021

pg37b  Camp Seamstress      2021

pg38    Camp Seamstress      2021

pg38b  Camp Seamstress      2021

pg39    Camp Seamstress      2021

pg39b  Alteration Projects    2021

pg40e  Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg41    Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg41b  Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg41c  Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg42    Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg42b  Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg44b  Original Creations    2021

pg45    Original Creations    2021

pg46    Original Creations    2021

pg46b  Original Creations    2021

pg47    Original Creations    2021

pg48    Original Creations    2021

pg48b  Original Creations    2021

pg49    Original Creations    2021

pg49b  Original Creations    2021

pg50    Original Creations    2021

pg50b  Original Creations    2021

pg51    Original Creations    2021

pg51b  Original Creations    2021

pg52    Original Creations    2021

pg52b  Original Creations    2021

pg53    Original Creations    2021

pg54    Original Creations    2021

pg56    Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg56b  Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg57    Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg57b  Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg58    Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg58b  Wardrobe Theory     2021

pg59    Wardrobe Theory     2021