Spring semester 2024 I explored my Hmong heritage, culture, and childhood through cloth and thread. In my Design 225: Apparel Design I course, our first assignment was to recycle old clothes and reconstruct them using the garment's pre-constructed patterning to create a new silhouette or using the garment as a new textile. I chose to use some of my mother's old clothes and use them as a textile to create a whole new garment. I designed and made a playful halter-top romper that someone might wear on a hot day at a Hmong festival where long lines of tents and vendors are set up and sports and competitions are buzzing around. The old garments came from old skirts my mother no longer used and I wanted to give them new life in the modern age of Hmong-Americans.