House as Thesis

On the catwalk

The Threshold

The Display Case

The Paparazzi Hut

Sectional Narrative

Front Elevation of 102 Greene Street, SoHo, Manhattan

The House as Thesis manifests and amplifies the entire instinctual and manufactured process of consumption and transformation:

First there is the threshold. The entrance is welcoming and open, its walls angled towards a focal point and completely mirrored, reflecting back one’s image at increasingly magnified scales the further one journeys inward.

Next, there is a catalogue of possibility. Motifs of myth and the ineffable are scattered throughout. The studio is the creative centre of genesis. It mediates between what can and cannot be realized.

Then there is the ascent to the aspiration. Whether in a church up the aisle between the row of pews or up the catwalk ramps, the physical act of moving upwards enacts the desire of reaching something beyond. The ritual of choosing items to adorn the self in defines notions of taste and understanding. And as any ritual, the rules of engagement are well known to all who participate.

After that, there is the moment of transformation. In the narrow darkness of the change rooms, the fusing of the self with the new image occurs. This is where the crossing of boundaries occurs, the transcendence almost complete, towards a higher purpose, ecstasy…

Finally, there is the revelation and reveal. Inevitably, this is judged by another body of arbitration. In fashion it is by the mass media and the paparazzi, where it is disseminated and very publicly assessed. Because a trend is not successful unless there are imitators it also creates a sense of community and sense of belonging. The projection of one’s identity throughout the rest of the space sends signals, electronically and perceptually, to all who participate.

The basement area is for the storage of the rejected, the aged. But even as the space for the abandoned, the items will undoubtedly resurface, emphasizing the cyclical pattern of fashion. Almost like an echo chamber of materialism, a finite quantum of the corporeal.

The spaces are all metaphors of the various scales of fashion: the designer house, the runway, the closet, the drawer. And the continuous narrative of the ceremonial experience renders it a temple of fashion.