At the first White House Fashion Education Workshop, First Lady Michelle Obama recognized the Parsons students and faculty who created the installation and encouraged the young designers gathered for the event.
Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP.
On October 8, 2014, students, alumni, faculty, and leaders from Parsons School of Design joined the first White House Fashion Education Workshop at the invitation of First Lady Michelle Obama.
Over two weeks, a team of sixteen undergraduate and graduate students conceived and built a paper installation for the White House East Room. Thousands of folded pieces came together to form a backdrop for the day’s events, transforming a familiar paper craft into a collaborative work at an architectural scale.
Source: The New School Press.
The prototype combined two overlapping layers of folded paper fortune tellers.
The team folded 4,000 pieces in five days. White pieces were carefully arranged to complement the First Lady’s blue dress.
Muslin supported the folded paper panels and allowed them to be rolled for transport from New York to Washington, D.C.
Four panels formed a single backdrop measuring 8 by 16 feet in the White House East Room.
Collaborators: Alison Mears, Jonsara Ruth, Helen Quinn, Mariam Alshamali, Laura Suppan, Neison DeJesus, Amanda Evengard, John Steward, James Clotfecter, Calvin Cheng, Stephen Finney, Laura Yeh, Marina Cunha, Julia Grunberg, Sofia Gimenez Burio, Junrui Wang.
Materials: Recycled books and muslin.