BOFFO Building Fashion in New York by Gage/Clemenceau Architects

Article source: Gage/Clemenceau Architects

Gage / Clemenceau Architects is collaborating on the design and production of a temporary installation with Nicola Formichetti, Fashion Director for Lady Gaga, Creative Director for Mugler as well as fashion stylist to Uniqlo, MAC and V Magazine. This collaboration is intended to produce an installation that experimentally fuses ideas from both fashion and architecture into a new type of physical environment, accessible to the general public, for a two week period coinciding with Fashion Week in New York City, in September 2011.    The stakes for this particular installation are high– as it will be housing not only the latest in Formichetti’s work, but will also include several original ensambles he has designed for Lady Gaga who has worn them in her performances and various red-carpet events.

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

• Architects: Gage/Clemenceau Architects
• Project: BOFFO Building Fashion/ Nicola Formichetti Store
• Location: New York, USA
• Software used: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 3D, Maya, 3dS Max and Showcase

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

Typically, fashion environments are defined by an rather restrained minimalism that focuses the attention only on the clothing– for the obvious reasons of only selling clothes. In our collaboration with Nicola Formachetti, we are rewriting this equation and attempting to produce a new genre of experimental space that not only showcases, but magnifies the impact of his fashion designs into a new form of  immersive environment that fuses the very genetics of architecture and fashion. Such fusions of artistic disciplines have historic roots in the 19th century German termGesamtkunstwerk, which describes mixings of the more traditional “arts” of music, sculpture, painting etc.  For our proposal we are updating this ambition with new materials, new technologies, and new visual effects as are only now becoming available, and combining them with what is perhaps the most popular and increasingly important of the contemporary arts today– fashion.  With shows such as the recent Alexander McQueen exhibition “Savage Beauty” at the venerable Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the associations between high art and fashion have never been stronger. This installation project pairs this development with new ideas about architecture, towards innovative and progressive new ends.

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

The installation is comprised of hundreds of robotically cut, mirrored facets, mounted to lightweight composite structural backing.  These individual reflective facets are hung from the ceilings and walls, and attached to the flooring. Each facet is attached to its neighbors using a system of precisely bent aluminum clips.  Large sheets of mirrored, abrasion-resistant, plastic sheets cover the floor and help to produce an endlessly reflective environment that refracts the clothing so that it can be viewed from a variety of unexpected perspectives.  In this installation fashion is no longer an object that sits within a minimal architectural box. Instead, clothing becomes an active participant in a new type of environment that combines the spatial and optical aspects of architectural design with the temporary, ephemeral and fluidly beautiful forms found only in the worlds of high fashion.

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

This  installation project is being organized through a non-profit organization, Boffo, that has a mission to inform the public about design and architecture through innovative exhibitions, installations and events.

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

Architects Team

Architect

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

Nicola Formichetti Store (Boffo)

Tags: New York

Categories: 3dS Max, Autocad, Maya, Shop, Showroom

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