Sewn out of a trashed peacock pool float, I created this purse as part of a project exploring the role of social status within the relationship between humans and the environment. Read in depth below.

One way that college students and their parents show their status is by paying into Greek life. Sororities and fraternities, one one side, are known as ways to socialize, make good friends and network in the future, but on the other hand, are also associated with hazing, sexual assault, alcohol, drugs, and non-stop partying. Because they are highly exclusive, care about superficial values, and cost lots of money, ideas exist of stereotypical frat boys and sorority girls who pay for rather than create true friendships, especially as Greek life is only available to those who can afford it, automatically excluding many and limiting potential ‘sisters’ and ‘brothers’ to those of higher class and status. This limitation narrows the diversity within fraternities and sororities, further enforcing stereotype images. 

Image is of utmost importance not only for sorority girls who comment adoringly on each other’s social media accounts filled with pictures of perfect lives of friends, fun and matching outfits. Greek life is bashed for the value they put on image, but image is of consequence everywhere, because we all judge each other on appearance whether we are aware of doing so or not. We look at people’s clothing and make assumptions about what they do for a living and where this places them relative to our own status. We care so much about material goods such as clothing, because they indicate our status to others, and we like to be seen as having high status, because even as most of us fit under the consumer umbrella, our capitalist economy, about competition and power and wealth, pits us against each other, as well as moving environmental concerns to the side. 

The way to save the environment for the future is to change the ways in which we think about each other and nature. Capitalism is not friendly, yet friendly and supportive of each other and our planet is what we must and can be, because the role of consumer is not the only role that we each possess; we all have multiple roles that give us new ways of thinking, which we can utilize to make our society a more ecological one. The role of friend, for instance, can connect two people with different life experiences, opening up new possibilities for each. 

Someone taught by their family to think of thrifting as a gross, poor activity might never think of going until invited by a friend who frequently thrifts and alters clothes with their sewing machine. Having such a friend could change our consumer mindset, when we realize that we don’t have to support producers and global warming by paying too much for an ‘on trend’ t-shirt in our size, when we could also recreate the old into something of our own and of value to ourselves through personal accomplishment. Improving our relationship with the world in this way is just as, if not more rewarding than buying something of ‘high status’ from a department store, because there is satisfaction in having been part of the production process- of making something your own and unique, or of going on a thrift shop treasure hunt where you both save money and leave the store with items that no one else is checking out with. 

I do this in my role as an artist. I’m drawn to making new out of old and am constantly collecting materials to upcycle, many of which were destined for or removed from trash cans, such as food wrappers that I get onto my brothers about not throwing away, or bouquets of dead flowers tossed in the trash. One of the best finds I made a couple months ago in our community bathroom was a giant wad of baby blue plastic stuffed into the trash. Although it looked like the head had been cut off, I could tell that it might have used to be a peacock pool float, decorated in sections with very recognizable feathers. 

A few weeks after storing it on my closet shelf, I found out that the float was taken from a frat house by someone in my hallway, who has its head in their closet as a trophy. Knowing where it came from, and being a peacock, a beautiful bird, and like Greek life, associated with wealth and the range from pride to arrogance, it seemed a perfect material to transform. It’s new purpose as a purse, an item of fashion worn to communicate status, is ironic, as it was found in a trash can, and before that, existed as another mass-produced, excessive statement item of status belonging to a group of those seeking to confirm their own statuses by paying to consider themselves part of something superior.