Dress Code

Dress Code is an abstract group portrait of American society. This vibrant, eighteen-panel mural is comprised of a fabric mosaic created from used clothing that has been cut and rearranged in horizontal bands distinguished by color. The donated garments came from two sources: clothing from recently naturalized citizens and military uniforms from members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Jean Shin chose these two groups because they embody important aspects of the American experience. Immigrants personify the principle of inclusion that is central to the American dream. Veterans have repaid the gift of citizenship through military service.

For Shin, the process of gathering her raw materials was as important as her arrangement of them. Through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, she invited veterans and active-duty servicemen and servicewomen to contribute their used military uniforms to the project. Among the immigrants who donated clothing, some were family and friends who had become citizens years ago. Others came to Shin after she solicited clothing contributions at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization ceremony in Baltimore, which took place, by happy coincidence, on the same day and in the same city that her own Korean-born parents had become citizens twenty-three years earlier.

In all, forty-five people donated items of clothing for the creation of Dress Code. The immigrant participants originated from more than twenty-five countries, including South Korea, Nepal, Egypt, Nigeria, Greece, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and Honduras. Veterans and active-duty members came from all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, served from World War II to the present, and represent military ranks from Private to Vice Admiral. Symbolizing a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, the articles of clothing in Dress Code present visual evidence of the diversity of the American populace.