Jasmine Schulte’s undergraduate collection ‘Deceptive Nostalgia’ reflects upon the organic textures and heavy silhouettes found within the growth of nature and decay of personal landmarks throughout her abandoned childhood home in Michigan. Once a place of wonder now felt permanently associated with the traumatic death of her stepmother in 2011. Nearly a decade later, Jasmine returned to take photographs and say farewell to the empty house and overgrown backyard path to the river. Schulte later collaged the nostalgic pictures from her visit with recycled paper and pieces of birch bark to create an eerie image of her lost past.




Organic textures and natural colour palettes were selected from a variety of bark, moss, and shelf mushrooms found in the midst of summer in Schulte’s old residence. Despite bearing so many difficult memories, the nature photographs Schulte took were the source of inspiration for fibre selection. The inverse side of recycled upholstery fabrics, mossy eyelash yarns, and many cones of bulky wool yarn, and handcrafted roving based appliques brought Deceptive Nostalgia to fruition.



Sculptural silhouettes were achieved by knitting massive panels and tubes on a bulky bed knitting machine and then finished by tapestry needle to conjoin the knitted shapes to be stuffed with polyfill or layers of hand-sewn tulle for volume. Due to the thickness of the wool, Schulte’s designs require weight-bearing facings and sleeve linings to balance the pounds of material and knitted fabric representative of the everlasting burden of traumatic familia loss in one’s youth and the impact it forever leaves.




Schulte has created looks two through six so far due to the coronavirus pandemic. The final version of the first look is currently in progress and will be shown during her first runway show in a post-pandemic world. Chair of the Fashion Design Department at Moore College of Art & Design, Nasheli Juliana Ortiz Gonzales is graciously providing her class of 2020 graduates the opportunity to show their thesis collection in the upcoming 2021 NYFW. Schulte looks forward to this future opportunity and to further develop this collection with her remaining excess materials and fabrics at her home studio based in Philadelphia.