Field Notes: A Jacket That Collects, Carries, and Remembers

Field Notes is not a jacket in the traditional sense, but a meditation on what clothing can hold - both physically and metaphorically. Designed and sewn by Oregon coast–based upcycling artist Danielle La’Rae, the piece transforms reclaimed canvas into a garment covered with thirty-two sculptural pockets. The canvas itself carries a history. Once used as protective sheeting inside a plexiglass factory, the heavy 20oz fabric has been re-contextualized from industrial barrier to wearable canvas. In its new life, the material no longer shields machinery, but instead becomes a carrier for wildflowers, notes, and fragments of the field. A shift from separating production to gathering memory.

At first glance, the pockets look purely utilitarian, a nod to field jackets or workwear. But their shape is intentional: each is patterned after the paper sleeves or cones used to carry fresh bouquets. In doing so, Field Notes reimagines pockets not as functional storage but as vessels for memory - containers for wildflowers, scraps, notes, and fragments of a life in motion. They are both practical and poetic, suggesting that clothing can be a companion in gathering experiences as much as it is a shield against the elements.

The jacket pushes against the boundary of wearability. It is undeniably heavy, cumbersome, and excessive, yet in that excess lies its message. By multiplying a single form across the body, Field Notes makes visible the relationship between repetition, silhouette, and storytelling in fashion design. The familiar act of “adding a pocket” is exaggerated into an almost sculptural gesture, turning the jacket into a wearable field guide.

Field Notes is part of an ongoing body of work exploring what happens when clothing steps outside of utility. Proving that fashion can be both responsible and experimental.

In the end, Field Notes suggests that a jacket can be more than something you put on; it can be a vessel for collecting the world around you. It’s not about having thirty-two places to store your keys or phone…it’s about having thirty-two opportunities to carry fragments of the field, stitched into form.