Parsons Paris

May 7, 2020

Tukki: Exploring Cultural Displacement, Diversity and Inclusivity

BFA Fashion Design Sophomores presented their final projects for the project ‘Tukki’ investigating the notion of cultural displacement in relation to diversity and inclusivity in fashion and the arts with Senegalese Paris-based Senegalese-American artist, Badara Ndiaye. 

Since 2017, otherness has been the key concept of the project developed by Parsons Paris students in the spring of their first year of specialization in fashion design. The project aims at exploring non-Western vernacular forms of cultural expression and at establishing a new kind of reciprocal dialogue with the visual, material and sensorial memories of the students themselves. This holistic approach involves the design of experimental garments that compose a cohesive contemporary outfit.

The students shared the personal perceptions and memories of their nomadic identity in exile with those of Badara Ndiaye, who experienced cultural displacement and translated it subjectively with various media. They redrew the versatile contours of their real and imagined histories and geographies through the materialization of intercultural exchanges that prevented them from falling into any form of cultural appropriation.