Sixteen BFA Fashion Design students recently participated in an innovative project exploring the intersection of design, culture, and performance.
Led by renowned performing artist Violeta Sanchez, the students were invited to explore their diverse identities and cultural backgrounds employing an interdisciplinary research process. Their goal: to then transform their insights into unique garments.
The exercise of representation and fashion making was presented as Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Something New, an experimental performance staged at the Centre National de la Danse.
The project included an element of sustainability by giving a second life to luxury fabrics provided by Maison Yves Delorme — a brand known for producing home-use textiles — and used in the performance.
In the live event, students were equipped with scissors and challenged to drape, knot, fold, and cut the fabric before their audience.
In their work, the students transcended conventional construction techniques, objects, and systems of Western fashion, reflecting their varied backgrounds. The intensive stage of cutting, shaping, and assembling resulted in graceful pieces that expressed
the revelations the student had uncovered in their cultural explorations. Taken together, the fashions represented the mosaic of personal stories and approaches to fashion found at Parsons Paris.
The students repeated their performance at the Palais de Tokyo, the largest center of contemporary art in Europe.
