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Soft Geometries: Fashion, Architecture, and NYC’s Garment District
A Conversation with Yeohlee Teng and Calvin Tsao

Tuesday, April 7, 2009
6:30pm - 8:30pm
at Van Alen Institute

Van Alen Institute is pleased to present a public conversation between designer Yeohlee Teng (YEOHLEE inc) and architect Calvin Tsao (Tsao & McKown) on the relationship between fashion and architecture, civic identity and social space in the context of the potential rezoning of New York City’s Garment District.

As the founder of YEOHLEE inc, Yeohlee Teng has worked in New York for nearly thirty years, designing clothing that mediates the interactions between clothing and the body, and between the individual and the built environment. Continually engaged with the cross-disciplinary potential of fashion, Yeohlee is active in the civic movement to “Save the Garment District” in New York City, and her work has been presented in exhibitions internationally alongside architects such as Herzog & de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Kazuyo Seijima/SANAA (2006). Yeohlee's designs have earned a permanent place in the Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the late Richard Martin called her "one of the most ingenious makers of clothing today." Yeohlee received the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Fashion Design in 2004.

Calvin Tsao is founding partner of Tsao & McKown, president of the Architectural League of New York, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He has a broad range of design experience from fashion boutiques in New York to large-scale, mixed-used projects in China and Singapore. Awarded The Fashion Group International’s Star Honoree for Architecture in 2003, Tsao’s work has been recognized by the fashion community and in 2009 he was invited by Women’s Wear Daily to envision the architectural future of the Garment District.

This program is part of a monthly series dedicated to the Institute’s community of members and fellows. The format and scale of these evenings are designed to encourage open and informal dialogue about topics and issues related to ongoing research at the Institute, with public architecture always at the heart of the discussion.

$8 for non-members, payable at the door; free for Van Alen Institute members and one guest. RSVP required to rsvp@vanalen.org by Monday, April 6.

If you are not a Van Alen Institute member and would like to gain free admission to this program and other future programs in this series, JOIN ONLINE or call (212) 924-7000 x12 for more information.