Area

Area staged Fall 2020 at The Africa Center, using the venue and an institutional partnership to frame a collection about borderless exchange, craft and technology. Printed metal chain carried Japanese tropical imagery, African weaving informed opening textures, and references to Madame Grès, Eiko Ishioka, Romeo Gigli and Berber metalwork were translated into Area’s own construction systems.

Hand-soldered chain dresses, deconstructed pleating, leather stay-ups, inflated heart forms and miniature chair bags made with Myreality pushed the studio’s material range at its pre-pandemic peak. The collection demonstrated how Fogg and Panszczyk could cite disparate sources openly while binding them through technical development and a recognisably New York appetite for excess.