Athletics has always had rules. What you wear, how you carry yourself, what your body is allowed to look like while you compete. As a former athlete, I felt those rules. The way a uniform can stop feeling like a choice and start feeling like a constraint.

Trapped in Uniform is an editorial I Directed for INDEX Magazine's FW22 issue at Emerson College, exploring the dangers of conformity in athletics through editorial fashion. The concept was born from a simple but unsettling question: in a dystopian society, every athlete wears the same uniform. No individuality. No identity. Just compliance.

To ground the work in real experience, I intentionally sought out and interviewed current Emerson athletes — documenting their firsthand perspectives on conformity, athleisure culture, and how industry standards affect their relationship with their own craft. Their voices shaped the editorial as much as the visuals did.

The photography reflects what they described. Women athletes styled in menswear as a direct challenge to the gendered traditions that have long defined athletic dress codes — standards that have historically reduced athletes to objects rather than honoring what they actually do. Silhouettes are tight. Movement is restricted. Everything signals control over performance.

Because athletes, like their uniforms, are not one-size-fits-all.