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Fitzsimmons' intelligently tailored womenswear was perfected after much practice. "I trained with Wilfred Rosario, a tailor in the Flatiron district, every Saturday for four years," he attests. Then Fitzsimmons applied these suit-making techniques to dresses and shirts. "It started with an abstract concept," explains the Denver native. After reading Maureen Dowd’s Are Men Necessary?, Fitzsimmons postulated female attire in a world without the opposite sex. "It’s a display of both aggression and delicacy in a palette somewhere between saturated floral and athletic," he explains—a mix embodied by a blue spandex dress adorned with hundreds of hand-cut foam petals. Jackets were constructed with a natural shoulder line "so as not to exaggerate the female frame," he explains, while a button-down was completed with a snap-crotch to hold it in place. Womenswear is lucky to have this young man on the case. robertlfitzsimmons (at) gmail.com   MORE >>

PARSONS THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DESIGN, BFA FASHION DESIGN   << LESS

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All your architecture are belong to us: This project envisions swarms of invisible microscopic robots acting as construction workers, spinning organic materials together like spiders. “This allows us to weave solid surfaces at a molecular scale to create architecture,” explains Whipple. To visualize its concept, the group used the software program Massive, used by the film industry to animate crowds of people. Their groundbreaking techniques are intended to inspire new ways of thinking about the future of design and construction. complexphenomena.com     MORE >>

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE   << LESS

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Three students from the Art Institute of Chicago made the Avant Guardian grade. Seduced by the story of Dorian Grey, Tina Park reflected on "an androgynous being whose psyche was corrupted in the search for youth and splendor." The somber palettes of oversized trousers embody a sophisticated orphan, and the intentionally skewed outerwear gives the sensation of wearing a weeping bird.   MORE >>

Three students from the Art Institute of Chicago made the Avant Guardian grade. Seduced by the story of Dorian Grey, Tina Park reflected on "an androgynous being whose psyche was corrupted in the search for youth and splendor." The somber palettes of oversized trousers embody a sophisticated orphan, and the intentionally skewed outerwear gives the sensation of wearing a weeping bird.
 
Drawing from architect Louis Henri Sullivan and the photographer Olaf Otto Becker, Monika Hadioetomo's project drapes and folds fabric to create simultaneously structural and fluid effects in silk-satin, organza and cotton-voile.
 
A trip to Tokyo got Madeline Sywulak thinking about how communication barriers can reduce cultures to a series of gestures. Her color-block dresses and geometrical constructions are lined with silk-screened illustrations drawn by the designer herself. Meanwhile, the neon shades are based on the graffiti that covers the streets of Tokyo's Harajuku district.
 
A trip to Tokyo got Madeline Sywulak thinking about how communication barriers can reduce cultures to a series of gestures. Her color-block dresses and geometrical constructions are lined with silk-screened illustrations drawn by the designer herself. Meanwhile, the neon shades are based on the graffiti that covers the streets of Tokyo’s Harajuku district.
 
Tinaspark@gmail.com, monika.hadioetomo@gmail.com, msywulak@gmail.com

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Like a merging of Habitat for Humanity, Rural Studio and deconstructivist theory, this house in Buffalo's Black Rock neighborhood incorporates a central communal living space surrounded by four expanded private nooks. The team behind this intervention first gutted a 400-square-foot single-family house then punched volumes through the existing walls with the intention of challenging perceptions of domesticity and the methods of architecture education. In the reinvention process, they were faced with the task of reinterpreting building codes in order to fund and execute this full-scale project from conception through completion. The project continues, and the progress can be seen on their site. quadspace.wordpress.com   MORE >>

UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE   << LESS

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Tackling perhaps our society's most sensitive issue, Constantine's project compares North American funeral rituals with those in other cultures to question the traditions' spiritual and ecological effects. "Death is the only absolute in this world, and we need to confront it," he explains. With a background in sculpture, his furniture and accessories place life and death side by side. The pine coffee table Memento can later become a coffin, while the Fontis urn can be used as a vase after the ashes have been scattered. Rather than being macabre reminders, Constantine's pieces make the inevitable a less taboo affair. halfwayhousedesign.com    MORE >>

PRATT INSTITUTE, MA INDUSTRIAL DESIGN   << LESS