Editor’s Note: You may have spotted Olivia Guarnieri walking around campus in a colorful polka-dotted and striped ensemble with pom-pom earrings and white vinyl shoes. I consider Olivia a fashion icon of Vassar College: she has mastered the art of patterns, layering, and color. A junior from Long Island, she has not declared yet but is a potential Media Studies Major. Olivia’s dedication to working in a variety of mediums on a tiny scale is inspiring. From small bathrooms, bedrooms, and playgrounds to blueberries swinging on swing sets and strawberries sunbathing, she constructs an alternate, minuscule reality of spaces we inhabit every day. She makes most items out of hot glue and fabric, she has yet to learn how to sew. She believes that children’s clothes are much more interesting than adults’, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her one day with her own line of spaghetti shirts and banana bags—perhaps with a line of children’s books to go along with it.

Below is a transcription of a conversation I had with Olivia. When she invited me to her room, I gained some insight into her process and interests.

Alessandra Pilkington: What was the first item you made?

Olivia Guarnieri: I made these galaxy print sneakers, and I remember there was this white t-shirt where I cut out fabric from something else in the shape of a flower and glued it on. I started making t-shirts with an object or a symbol in the middle and wearing it around.

AP: What is your favorite item of clothing you’ve made so far?

OG: I’ll name two different things. One—I went through a really big pom-pom faze, and I first just glued white pom poms onto studs, and those were my defining element; I wore them every single day. I have a lot of memories connected to them: I remember talking about my pom-pom affinity with someone I played the clarinet with, and when I was a counselor at this camp I remember all my kids asking me why I had cotton balls on my ears. Also, the shirt I made recently, which is just a red t-shirt with a pencil on it that I cut out of felt. I just feel like a character in that shirt.

AP: Do you think you actively make yourself into a character?

OG: I like the idea of myself being a character, I feel like I change a lot, but I do like the idea of having definite personality traits. For myself, I think it works more from the outside in, where things that happen to me change the way I am—where I like the idea of it working the other way around so when I think of characters, I think of them as static in having defining elements. I think there is something really satisfying in being able to characterize yourself. I think it’s more satisfying to have more definite answers.

AP: Haven’t you recently drawn all your outfits?

OG: Yeah! This is actually the first “do a little thing every day” I have ever kept up with since the first day of being at Vassar this semester. So far I have everything, it’s like the 50-something-day, but I guess I wanted to see if there are any overall trends. Haven’t found any yet though.

AP: How did you start doing your tiny dioramas? What was the inspiration behind them?

OG: Again with the character thing, first building my character and then the world building for my character. I think it relates to how I think about size and my size in the world—things I feel weird about in the real world, where it doesn’t make sense between myself and certain aspects of the world where I think there should be a different pairing. So maybe I’m trying to create this world that makes more sense with myself. I totally try to construct myself as a character, but then being able to also construct my setting even furthers the definition of my character—things that are viewed as totally functional aspects of real life, and turning them into decorations that I can control—I guess it all comes down to control. [laughter]

AP: What is your favorite diorama yet?

OG: Oh man, I just want to keep making more ‘cause I feel like I haven’t made that many. But I guess I’ll say one of my most recent ones is the strawberry in the bathroom.

AP: How do you make them?

OG: Cardboard and clay are the main things. I’d like to include more moldable materials, possibly something clear. But I started just making them out of scraps and things around my house.

AP: What are you working on right now? Are you working on anything new?

OG: The last thing I did was make that little table or desk with the paper and pencil. It came from these really small dioramas where I made one-inch boxes, and I made a few of those. I’d like to put little settings in these different rooms and maybe build some sort of house or bigger structure, which would be a collection of all these small rooms, and there is a different thing happening in each room. With the strawberry in the bathroom setup, there is spaghetti in the sink, which is mixing the different functions in the house, and what is thought to happen in each room of the house.

AP: Do you have a dream for your series and brand, “tastylittlesnackers?”

OG: I just want to make my hobbies into my job. I would like to do a lot of different things, and I could see tastylittlesnackers having multiple different facets—clothing, having an educational and writing element, etc.

AP: Do you have a favorite fruit?

OG: I’ve always said strawberries are my favorite visually and bananas are my favorite to eat.

AP: What is your favorite section of the grocery store?

OG: Produce.

AP: Why are you drawn to food?

OG: I LOVE the way that food looks. I love the visuals of food; I love grocery stores. I feel like I could go into a grocery store as if it were a museum. I guess also I like things in real life which look like they are already easily adaptable to a two-dimensional life. Like outlets: if you were to realistically draw or paint an outlet, which is really similar to its two-dimensional representation…. Clear shapes and lines, in two-dimensional world outlets, would look so similar to itself in the three-dimensional world. Grocery stores are a more complicated example. I can so easily picture what a grocery store would look like in a two-dimensional world in the three-dimensional world.

AP: How often do you picture things in the two-dimensional world?

OG: I guess things that my eye is attracted to are things that easily translate into that. Somethings that just naturally happens. The grocery store has so many colors and the repetitions—small things in large quantities; I love the way that looks. I love the way clutter looks. I realize if I have a lot of things I’ll carry them all even if I could fit them into my backpack because I like the way it looks.

AP: Do you make your work with an audience in mind, or is it more for you?

OG: Definitely more for myself, as I’m trying to place myself in a context.

AP: Do you shop more online or in stores?

OG: I’d like to see the things in person, but I feel like as time has gone on, there are fewer things I see in person that I like. So I resort to getting things online. Last year I would Google certain terms a lot and just browse through multiple images of yellow boots.

AP: Do you have any artist inspirations?

OG: Yes! There is this Instagram which is such a dreamboat, the account is “aleia,” and she makes all of these backgrounds and buildings for snails. She has real snails moving through them—oh my god these are so brilliant. They are the epitome for everything for me right now.

To see Olivia’s work and more of her stellar outfits, check out her Instagram, and her website!

Also, you can listen to the RAW audio of this interview on my Soundcloud.