Rutgers University–Camden will stage an immersive fashion and performance event that turns the hospital gown into both garment and metaphor on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. in the Campus Center’s Multi-Purpose Room and Main Lounge at 326 Penn Street in Camden, New Jersey.
The evening will center on a new live work by Philadelphia-based artist and Rutgers–Camden art professor Margery Amdur, alongside runway presentations by internationally recognized fashion designer and “Project Runway All-Stars” finalist Korto Momolu.
The program is a blend of art, design and storytelling that moves between performance and runway, drawing on clinical silhouettes and high-fashion references in the same space. Registration is not required but is recommended through Rutgers–Camden’s event listing
Reimagining the hospital gown
At the heart of the evening is “Wearing the Inside Out,” a new performance conceived by Amdur. The work focuses on the familiar shapes of medical clothing — scrub tops, hospital gowns and walker jackets — then pushes them into unfamiliar territory through layered materials and text.
The garments are described as being radically transformed by Amdur’s signature techniques. She constructs these pieces from digitally printed textile strips, stitched wire seams and hand-cut overlays, incorporating translucent layers of journal writing by patients.
That combination turns functional medical wear into what amounts to wearable sculpture. The embedded writing gives the garments a narrative dimension, while the stitched wire and layered fabrics emphasize structure and fragility at the same time.
Amdur is known for an interdisciplinary practice that frequently crosses painting, sculpture, installation and textiles. Her immersive “Felt Narratives” installations have used fragile materials and overlooked objects to build sculptural environments that reflect on vulnerability, memory, identity and resilience. The new performance continues those concerns but shifts them onto moving bodies in a live setting.