This project is an investigation on the topics of consumerism, social media, and perception /expression have influenced style and inherently identity in New York, with a heavy focus on architecture.

Style is the physical things you ornament yourself with, how you walk, or even how you react to different situations. We are at an age of high consumerism that is coupled with an age of ever-growing social media. Social media has become a performance with the awareness of perception and less about an outward form of expression that reflects the “internal”.

Consumerism culture is not just about buying things but its become tied to identity, status, and belonging. Style and fashion have become huge forms of consumerism, which New York City is a hub for. Social media is a huge part of this topic with influencers helping to push consumerism and style by following various trends. Consumerism thrives off of how what you buy is perceived. This pushes the idea of fitting into a perceived role and expression is inherently changed. While style is individual, consumerism and social media can negatively affect that. Expression can be used to communicate your own style or what you want others to percieve your style as.

A good example is this outfit Kim Kardashian wore. While I was working on this project, Kim Kardashian attended the Academy Museum Gala wearing this draped face mask that heavily related to this exploration. This connects to how people in the public eye veil themselves physically (in this case) and emotionally through consumerism, social media, and perception /expression.

I expressed these ideas physically in this project by exploring the ideas of being displayed or veiled. To express the idea of being displayed my project has a mainly glass veneer. A fabric like material is draped over the upper floors to veil people on the interior.