Magda PrettyCripple at the Parsons Dress and Emotion Exhibit

Thursday, February 11th, marked the opening of a fashion photography project scheduled to run concurrently with the first day of New York Fashion Week. During this week, Fall 2016 fashions are paraded down the runways and the fashion world takes heed.

Dress & Emotion is a three year research project funded by Parsons The New School for Design.  This project was conceived and developed by Fiona Dieffenbacher, Assistant Professor and Director of the BFA Fashion Design program. This endeavor was designed to seek and explore the emotional and sensory act of dressing.  The images presented in the exhibit aim to investigate themes of body image, identity/self-curation, representation and the messaging of dress.

How do we see ourselves? What comes first? The body- is it the image we seek to create or does one create the other? Are we dressing a body image that is real or imagined? Do we see dress as a uniform, persona, provocation or protection? 

Dress and Emotion - Parsons Exhibit

Fay Leshner, Steven Guarnaccia, Associate Professor, Illustration, Parsons
Mickey Boardman, Editorial Director, PAPER magazine – Photos by Zhi Wei Hiu

Dress & Emotion Parsons New School Exhibit

David Lee, Jackson Wiederhoeft, BFA Fashion Design student, Parsons
 and Reign Apiim.

It was a great honor to have been chosen for this exhibit along with several dozen candidates who were interviewed and photographed.  As fashion enthusiasts, we eagerly discussed today’s world of fashion, what inspires us and how fashion makes us feel in our day-to-day style choices.

The culmination of photos and interviews of the candidates resulted in an exhibit which opened to the public last week at Parsons The New School in NYC.

The opening lifted me from my winter doldrums. I was heading into NYC, the perfect antidote to suburban ennui!  The intoxicating energy of NYC leaves an afterglow for weeks on end.

 

Fiona Dieffenbacher, Assistant Professor of Fashion, David Lee and Magdalena Truchan New School Dress and Emotion

Fiona Dieffenbacher, Assistant Professor of Fashion, Me, David Lee and Monique.

Pretty Cripple - part of the Dress & Emotion exhibit at Parsons New School

Photos me me in the exhibit.

PrettyCripple in the Parsons Dress and Emotion exhibit

Candidates quotes were superimposed over their image and displayed on a wall. After reading my quote, do you wonder, “Wow, not only is she a blogger, graphic designer and style maven, but a philosopher as well. What a blessing to find another polymath.”

Aside from the fact that this exhibit is a porthole into the mind of fashion creatives, it was the perfect opportunity to dish about fashion, growing up in NY and other fashion related issues. I really enjoyed the tête-à-tête with my comrades about their perception of the world of fashion today.

Magdalena Pretty Cripple and Dusty Childers

I love big hugs. Dusty Childers is the kinda of guy to do that to.

PrettyCripple and Zhi Wei Hiu

Me and Zhi Wei, the photographer of the exhibit. Sparkling wine totally loosens people up.

This meeting of the minds gave me hope that New York Fashion Week might instill newness which has been absent for the past few years.  For years, the majority of brands toss safe, unprovocative designs onto a runway which might as well be corporate driven fashion-filler.

***EXHIBIT ENDS FEBRUARY 28, 2016.***

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