A few moons ago, I took a break from my day job to conceive and launch the Uniform Project — a creative experiment that grew into an online phenomenon. In May of 2009, I pledged to wear one little black dress for 365 days as an exercise in sustainable fashion, and documented my daily efforts online to raise funds for  the Akanksha Foundation – a non-profit organization providing education to children living in Indian slums.

For the next 365 days, I reinvented my little black dress solely using accessories that were either vintage, handmade, reused or donated. By the end of the year long challenge, the U.P site received over 2 million hits, gaining over 10,000 social media followers and raising over $100,000 in donations for the Akanksha Foundation.

The Little Black Dress was made available for sale, made locally in limited edition. The 365 dresses sold out in less than a week and raising another 10K in funds for the cause. U.P received worldwide recognition and was featured in major media outlets ranging from the New York Times, The Guardian, CNN, BBC, TED, the Times London, the Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, Vogue, Elle, Glamour, and Marie Claire to hundreds of fashion, culture and design blogs, as well as numerous TV shows around the world. I also had the honor of being named one of Elle Magazine’s Women of the Year.

Following the success of the first year, we opened up the platform to other women, creating the U.P ‘Pilot Series’ – a monthly series of micro-challenges featuring 1 Dress for 1 Month for 1 Cause. U.P unveiled a new face in a new dress each month allowing the ‘pilot’ to take on the 1-dress challenge to fundraise for a cause of their choice.

During the course of U.P, I had the wonderful opportunity to tour the world and speak about the project. Publishers in Japan also released a book about my 365 day  challenge in July 2011. The book is now available on Amazon Japan

To see the complete ‘dailies’ and learn more about the project, please visit theuniformproject.com

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Amazon Japan >

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One of the inaugural members at New Inc, sharing desk space with an ensemble of artists, designers, technologists & entrepreneurs.  New Inc offers cross-disciplinary lunch lectures, master classes and professional mentorship for resident projects, and sparks peer to peer collaborations. I’m currently exploring a product design venture that reinvents cultural archetypes using emerging technologies.

More about the incubator at newinc.com >

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‘When the people shall have nothing left to eat, they will eat the rich’ – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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The result is Posterity – a limited edition Poster Series created by The Mill’s creative staff and its extended network of artist friends, in aid of the famine. Each poster is released in a limited edition of 50, gallery-quality Giclée prints on 100% cotton rag archival paper, and printed with archival inks. All net-proceeds from Posterity go to UNICEF’s relief efforts in the region. To help make this possible, The Mill has partnered with Inprnt, a premium provider of gallery-quality archival prints, who has generously donated its services.The entire project was conceived and executed in just 2 weeks, with participation from 32 designers. Within just a couple weeks of launch, we raised over $5k in funds for the famine and even got some love from the folks at GOOD >

View the complete series at  Posterity >

Credits:
Company: The Mill
Client: 5050.gd
Creative Directors: Sheena Matheiken & Mario Stiponovich
Exec. Producer: Bridget Shields
Producer: Jonathan Robinson
Art Director: Sougwen Chung
Lead Curator: Emmett Dzieza
Developer: Chris McKenzie
Printer: Inprnt

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“Catherine chokes to death on her coffee after being shocked by the hideousness of her jacket lining”

“Identified with the R. Kelly classic, I believe I can fly'”

“Those were the nicest pair of ____ I’ve ever seen.”

“No mercy for the guy who didn’t mercy flush”

“In his typical turned-around fashion (someone whose very name was even backwards) it’s fitting that Bob would meet his demise falling up the stairs”

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What aesthetic discourse could one have about ruined culture picking up after years of aggression and war? Modern postwar landscapes are inevitably still at war, existing in a transformed urban sphere, struggling to restore normalcy as life regains its persuasive cycle within these distorted landscapes. The aesthetic and emotional quotients evoked from such dissonant imagery are quite dislocating. While devastation and irreconcilable tragedy are persistently conveyed through these ruins, they also start to exude a new kind of aura – a subliminal aura through which bullet holes and grenade indentations gradually become infused into new landscapes of restored life. Their presence becomes acceptable, and a feeling of nervous caution, perhaps even comfort, resonates from them, through the identification of one of the most vital of human instincts – that of survival.

Urbicide was completed in June of 2001, just months before 9/11. The short film accompanying the project premiered at the rooftop terrace of ABC No Rio gallery in NYC on the six month anniversary of 9/11. The very first installation of the Towers of Light beamed in the background, adding new pathos and context to the piece.

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