100 Years of American Fashion: A Sidewalk Project

The Sidewalk Project is a material extension of the digital archive, "100 Years of American Fashion," which is an online archive the uses the medium of milanote and Tumblr as a way to engage young Americans and in the social and political history of their country through the discipline of fashion design and styling. The archive displays 3-5 entries of the most iconic and social relevant outfits of each decade, starting in the 1920's and continuing through the 2020's.

The Sidewalk Project involves selecting one documented outfit from each decade to recreate in total material accuracy. The project would enlist designers from all over New York City to research, develop, and eventually create exact replicas of 10 outfits, in their original materials, patterns, and methods. These outfits would become time-capsules of fashion and materials history and would allow for more in-depth and intimate research and experiences. Each outfit would come with a booklet of information about it original design and creation, and also the process of recreation. All 10 outfits would be stored on a specially designed rack that would allow for transportation to any location in New York City. The rack would be set up in a certain location and the public would be invited to observe and engage with the clothes, even try on the outfits for themselves. We see this kind of material investigation being useful for designers, artist, an fashion students but nonetheless engaging still for any member of the public. The first proposed location would be the open courtyard outside of the FIT campus. Since our archive an it presences on Tumblr is meant to engage young, stylishly inclined Americans, we see this as a good first impression for the project to drum up interest and hype.