2008 / I am the designated mourner... Oh yes, you see, it’s an important custom in many groups and tribes. Someone is assigned to grieve, to wail, and light the public ritual fire. Someone is assigned when there’s no one else.”
–Wallace Shawn, The Designated Mourner

The dress was constructed from a 1901 pattern for a French mourning garment. The apron panel in front is a traditional detail for a costume of this era. The characters visible on the apron are Hebrew, and are the first lines of the “mourner’s Kaddish,” or Jewish prayer recited for the dead.