Sean Duke

Sean Duke

Fashion Product

Bio

Sean Duke is a fashion designer based in NYC, he studied Graphic Design before he transferred to Parsons committing to Fashion Product Design. Sean Duke begins with reading systems, before translating works into reality. He started remaking silhouettes– studying the works of designers like Matthew Williams, Takahiro Miyashita, Vivienne Westwood, etc. before moving toward his own unique designs. He observes overlooked notions for inspiration, while engineering the constructions in his head; Combining these two factors to produce imaginative designs.

@wear032001@seansaidoohsis [personal]
Video:

30 Second Trailer Clip for the SUBSTEEL Thesis collection.

Thesis Statement

SUBSTEEL is a thesis collection that looks at the NYC Subway System as a design language. The system is one of the most heavily used pieces of public infrastructure in the country and yet one of the least closely examined. People touch its surfaces, lean on its columns, and walk over its floors every day without really registering them. The collection treats the subway not as something to depict but as a vocabulary to translate,

drawing from the permanent parts of the system and the impermanent ones: the steel column and the graffiti, the riveted beam and the wear patterns, the train car and the bodies that move through them. Each piece works from a different part of that language– some structural, some behavioral, some literal. SUBSTEEL is a study of how a city’s most overlooked design language can be read, excavated, and carried.

Image: The Commuter high top sneakers are designed by borrowing shapes directly from the typical subway trains commuters see daily. The toe box features a front of train shape with "N and Q" letter detailing, the side of the sneakers like the side windows that can be opened at the top, and to finish on the heel they feature subway door window shaped paneling.
Image: Nick props himself against the very pillar that influenced the design of the Dweller sneakers, a much more abstracted piece of this collection, still with the heart of the NYC Subway inside it's design. He is also wearing the arrows backpack.
Image:

2 variants of the Commuter sneakers sit next to the train car duffle bag that has been hit by some graffiti! The 'AOTP' graffiti is snap-on snap-off of the duffle so it can be exchanged for different words, colors, styles, and sizes of graffiti.

Image:

A "clean" or "buffed" train car duffle

Image: Vs. when the train car gets hit by graffiti, this graffiti pouch says 'AOTP' for All Over The Place. A custom made pouch could say whatever you want.
Image:

Here is the pouch separated from the duffle, if you look it has hooks on both sides to be able to attach to many different straps. This particular pouch is able to fit any iPhone max model inside. All are laser cut and meticulously stitched on a machine.

Image:

To the left you will see the bottom of one of my favorite pillars and right by the closing doors of the subway car are the yellow rectangles with 3 different facing arrows for directing traffic.

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On the right the translation from an attention grabbing piece of graphic design into an elegant, functional product. The 3 zippers open into 3 different compartments, 2 smaller side pockets that can fit a smaller water bottle inside, and the main compartment that opens from the center.