Our project, Wall St Has Fallen, is a three-piece suit consisting of pants, a blazer, and a shirt constructed entirely out of paper. Through this wearable sculpture we explore the idea of standing outside the norm.

We began by creating and analyzing a garment library, examining construction techniques and unconventional silhouettes. Two pieces stood out: a pair of pants with a structured inverted waistband and an asymmetrical sculptural sweater. The garments' unconventional features made them seem strange and incongruous. That sparked a question: What is the norm? The answer was corporate clothing—conventional, rigidly defined, monotonous, highly structured. We went on to study the visual language of corporate culture: grids, data, and the overwhelmingly dense text blocks in publications like the Wall Street Journal.

We devised a way to defy that norm: using fabric manipulation techniques such as weaving, slicing, and folding to construct a full suit from newspaper and plotter paper. The weaving was essential to the construction of the garment: It allowed us to break down the paper and reassemble it into something more overtly tactile and dimensional that still reflected the rigidity of corporate culture. The headlines and articles suggested the pressure, urgency, and information overload characteristic of corporate life. In the suit, text becomes texture; the news becomes pattern.

By transforming these materials into something wearable, we challenged the austere, authoritative appearance of corporate attire. The result is both familiar and disruptive—a garment that at first glance seems to fit into the mold but actually subverts it.