Artemis & Callisto | Deborah Won

Artemis and Callisto explores garments as a system responding to divergence. The work investigates how a shared pattern system behaves when two bodies move in alignment, then apart.

This project demonstrates that garments built from the same base will resolve differently when the bodies inside them stop matching.

Both garments begin from a single pattern. Same structure, same silhouette, same construction logic. Two figure skaters wear them on ice, moving in synchronization: mirrored gesture, shared rhythm, equivalent form.

The test was what happens when that alignment breaks. The skaters separate. Each body moves independently.

The garments diverge. Fit shifts, silhouettes no longer mirror, and each system becomes specific to its wearer. The body changes first. The system follows.

In the myth, Artemis and Callisto are companions. They move together, hunt together, mirror each other's gestures until the two are nearly indistinguishable. Then Callisto's body changes. The synchronization breaks. Artemis no longer recognizes her, and what was shared becomes specific, singular, no longer returnable.

The collection takes this as its condition. Two garments. Two bodies. One shared origin. The question is not whether they match. It is what happens when they stop.

Sketch and Pattern

Garment design sketch for Artemis and Callisto

Sewing pattern pieces for Artemis and Callisto

Initial garment sketch and sewing pattern, shared base for both garments

The silhouette is modeled after a peasant dress, with puffed sleeves and gathered shoulders. The construction allows the fabric to move freely from a fixed gathering point, so the garment shifts with the body rather than holding a rigid line. The material is a super lightweight ITY jersey, stretchy enough to follow every gesture. Physical movement translates into liquid fabric movement, so the garment never resists the body. It just keeps up.

Performance

Two skaters in red, arms extended in mirrored positions

Two skaters in red, hands meeting at center

Alignment: shared movement, shared structure

Two skaters in red, connected at hands, pulling apart

Two skaters in red, arching backward, connected at hands

Divergence: bodies separate, garments resolve independently