The Armor Paradox posits that to don armor is to battle against the self’s destruction, but in doing so, we put it and ourselves on the path to erosion. Through asymmetry, distortion, and the integration of metal into traditionally soft crafts, the garments embody collapse and persistence at once: armor as strength, armor as decay. In a culture of acceleration, in this dog-eat-dog world, everything that is given up— time, identity, even the self, can be expendable in the pursuit of something greater. We chase greatness because we fear insignificance. In this quest to become larger than life, to surpass the human, we are driven by the most human of fears: that without our armor, we might be nothing at all.