Manker was not discouraged by the fact that he couldn’t wear her dress for the prom. Instead, she was inspired to create a dress that “documents a part of history.”
Her coronavirus-themed dress features multiple images depicting life during the pandemic. Her vision of the dress began with a desire to capture her own experience. She represents her unforgettable senior year with a vibrant scene of students attending virtual graduation.
Manker’s ideas evolved as the pandemic continued to impact people around the world.
“It wasn’t just high school students, it wasn’t just the United States, but everyone affected by the pandemic, so I wanted to show that,” Manker said.
It does this by displaying an image of people fleeing the giant coronavirus to indicate that the world is trying to avoid contracting the disease. Other designs pay tribute to front-line workers and people suffering from mental health problems as a result of the pandemic.
The Sparta, Illinois, high school graduate did not omit any details of her outfit. She completed the look with a creative assortment of accessories including a “flatten the curve” face mask. Manker also made jewelry, shoes, and a hair-reading piece, “separately.”
While Manker’s favorite creation is her coronavirus-shaped purse, she believes that her anklet displaying the words, “This too will pass,” perfectly encapsulates her message. She wants people who see her dress to remember that “even if it doesn’t seem like it right now, the coronavirus pandemic will eventually pass, in the end everything will be fine.”
Manker also wants to encourage a spirit of positivity with his work. She believes that “we can get some positive things out of this whole experience and my dress is an example of that.”
It would be hard to tell by looking at the photos of his work, but Manker says this is his debut as a duct tape artist. His previous experience is making small wallets with tape and flowers when he was much younger. Four months and 41 rolls of duct tape later, he managed to do something much more elaborate.
As Manker prepares to leave for Southwestern Illinois College in the fall, he says the experience taught him that “you can do a lot of things with duct tape.”
Duck Brand will award $ 20,000 in cash scholarships to the winners in July.
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