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“What would you do if you only had until midnight tonight to live?”

“I would gather all the freshest ingredients in town, cook a full course dinner, invite my friends to wine and dine, and say my farewells. Kind of sounds like The Last Supper...Actually, if you think about it, it’s like a 'First Supper'.
Even when you think you know someone, you really get to know them once you have a meal together.”

This was the conversation that inspired My First Supper, which was my first attempt at integrating a participatory event into the creative process of fashion design. Although past projects have always been rooted from very personal thoughts or experiences, the process and results felt disconnected and isolated; and beyond the projects  -  well, there was no beyond. Sensing that the idea of creating something that not only lasts physically but gives back or grows, plays against the ephemeral nature of fashion, it only appeared to me that this was a challenge I could be excited about for a lifetime. 

The intention for this particular project was straightforward: using, observing, and applying the power of food - the power to bring people together - in the field of fashion. Connecting and nurturing relationships with people over shared meals has been largely prevalent in my life, and I had high hopes for its magic to work. I hoped somehow, that it would open a new horizon where I could practice fashion with purpose, relevance, and joy. With this as the aim, I held my first dinner party at the shared apartment I lived in at the time, posting a flyer at Parsons Paris for students to sign-up for a potluck.

MY FIRST SUPPER allowed me to understand the possibility of changing the design approach and also the complexity of exploring a creative process symbiotic with a participatory event. It begged for the need to identify what changes an event and a specific participant group brought into the fashion design process and the resulting clothes. Half a year later, this led to my thesis project, Clothedstories. 

next: dinner chapter i