by arlette rodriguez
Justin is a senior majoring in Chemistry at UT Austin with an interest in textile design. Justin’s collection, titled “Indelible,” is about his life growing up as a queer person within the Catholic Church. The indelible mark within the church signifies one’s permanent closeness to God and how they grow closer to Him throughout life’s events, including marriage. As a queer person, this mark only represents the growing disconnection from the person you are supposed to be close to. “Indelible really means that’s with you forever, and it really is this collection,” said Justin.
The indelible mark in Justin’s collection is depicted as a bride’s transformation within her body and mind, and how she came to terms with herself. The first look in the collection begins with a beautiful bride surrounded by flowers and her face covered in tears. The second look is a full-length coat with a bird on top of a beautiful train. The third look depicts an exhausted woman with a cigarette in her hair and flower petals that relate back to the first look. The ultimate look is a person walking out with a ball of light, signifying the light you find at the end of a journey. Justin based this final look on a memory from his childhood of muffling his cries within a dark closet after arguing with his parents about being “more of a man.” At this moment, a Lunar New Year toy lit up the whole room and allowed Justin to let out all of his emotions.
Justin’s religious themes within his collection were created around the sacrament of matrimony and how it evolves, depicted through his bending of gender expression within his pieces. “The indelible mark is not really present within you until the end, when I feel so far away from God, but so close to me finding who the person I am meant to be or who God made me.”
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