TESSA
ABOUT
MANIFESTO
COLLECTIONS
EKPHASTIC
CHRONIC APPAREL
UGLY FASHION
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I NEED A COAT
THE CHELE
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STORIES FROM HERE
(530) 574-8084
tessam.hickman@gmail.com
@tessakick
@tessafor3v3r
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessa-hickman-b072ab166/
ABOUT
My primary goal is to create clothing that is above all else, accessible while maintaining my own sense of design integrity. I have learned firsthand the role clothing can play in day-to-day pain management for those with chronic pain and physical differences. I design clothing that aligns with my artistic style, and then find ways of innovating patterns and construction methods that that explore bodies often forgoten in design spaces.
My primary goal is to create clothing that is above all else, accessible while maintaining my own sense of design integrity. I have learned firsthand the role clothing can play in day-to-day pain management for those with chronic pain and physical differences. I design clothing that aligns with my artistic style, and then find ways of innovating patterns and construction methods that that explore bodies often forgoten in design spaces.
TESSA
Parsons School of Design. BFA, Fashion Design 2025
In recent years I’ve taken a heightened focus on tailoring and precise alterations, being one of the most common ways to make clothing adaptive towards different bodies. I’m becoming increasingly intrested in gender affirming tailroing and have been working towards the development of tailoring alterations to support bodies in transition and ease gender dysphoria where possible.
I took an interest in adaptive fashion after developing several injuries to my joints and later received a diagnosis of Hyper Mobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Due to the syndrome, healing of the joint injuries became deeply complicated and has left me to be one of many sufferers of chronic pain. While doctors have few answers for how to make pain more manageable, I've found that certain ways of dressing ease pain, but the adaptive fashion industry is lacking in style and innovation.
The imagery primarily focuses on exploring the female experience and living with chronic pain, often focusing on internalized desires and daydreams, as I found myself relying on those at certain points in my life to manage the experience of pain. Influences include current youth culture, maximalist fashion, female rock, and experimental hyper-pop artists, medievil folk art, and fantasy.
I design for all bodies, the differently abled and those with chronic pain are prioritized at the center of my work.
I took an interest in adaptive fashion after developing several injuries to my joints and later received a diagnosis of Hyper Mobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Due to the syndrome, healing of the joint injuries became deeply complicated and has left me to be one of many sufferers of chronic pain. While doctors have few answers for how to make pain more manageable, I've found that certain ways of dressing ease pain, but the adaptive fashion industry is lacking in style and innovation.
The imagery primarily focuses on exploring the female experience and living with chronic pain, often focusing on internalized desires and daydreams, as I found myself relying on those at certain points in my life to manage the experience of pain. Influences include current youth culture, maximalist fashion, female rock, and experimental hyper-pop artists, medievil folk art, and fantasy.
I design for all bodies, the differently abled and those with chronic pain are prioritized at the center of my work.