Martyr Dresses have a relationship to hair shirts worn by religious ascetics as a form of offering or penance. The one made of eggshells is meant to suggest a wedding dress, with the eggshells referring to fertility. From trying to avoid pregnancy, to unwanted pregnancies, to the ticking of the biological clock, to fertility treatments, to motherhood, and menopause, this is the dress to be worn in deference to the role fertility plays in a woman’s life. The dress made of lump charcoal is both a strapless, black gown and a funeral pyre. It refers to both the transience of beauty and the sacrifices made for beauty. The dress made of glass represents material possessions or wealth. Although it may sparkle like jewels, it’s nothing but broken bottles and jars.