The Office of Academic Affairs awarded Afsin Zehra Musa '24 (MFA2), whose thesis project is featured on this page, the Chairman’s Award for her overall performance at NYSID. At NYSID, thesis projects are long journeys that challenge students to brainstorm, conduct research, and synthesize all they have learned. The journey ends with a presentation to a jury of faculty and industry professionals. Our students work closely with faculty to create hypothetical designs that offer solutions to real-world problems.

Student: Afsin Zehra Musa
Project: Threaded Renaissance
Program: Master of of Fine Arts (Post-Professional)
Instructor: Stefanie Werner / Mentor: Sunwha Her

Afsin Zehra Musa envisioned a thesis project that could close the “gap between the fashion world today and the one coming in the future.” Musa also saw opportunities to weave connectivity throughout a mall’s spaces, exploring it as an interior-exterior concept, through fashion’s present and future. She sought to counter some of fashion’s adverse effects, including contributions to environmental damage and a cycle of overconsumption.

So with an eye toward transforming the industry’s fast pace, Musa created Threaded Renaissance, a shopping mall bound to sustainable practices in fashion and interior design. Located in NYC’s Herald Square, a major fashion hub, the mall houses sustainable lifestyle and fashion boutiques, along with flea market, thrift store, atrium café, rooftop restaurant, coffee shop, fashion school, and auditorium spaces. The premise offered Musa an opportunity to promote brands with high environmental standards and to specify sustainable materials like jute brick, terracotta terrazzo, rattan, solar textiles, and recycled upholstery.

One of her biggest challenges was working with a footprint much smaller than is typical for malls. But with encouragement from NYSID mentor Sunwha Her and instructor Stefanie Werner, Musa moved forward and found her showstopper. “I decided to do a featured staircase,” she says. “It took me almost 3 weeks to place it and analyze the circulation.”

The stair’s railing is a beautiful example of connectivity, employing tensegrity to form a strong structure built from the tension and compression capabilities of rope. Another interesting feature is an umbrella in the middle of the rooftop restaurant, within a chandelier, that ultimately connects downstairs to the fashion school. A square of solar material above the chandelier collects energy from the sun during the day and powers lighting for the school. Additional highlights include the building’s customization studio and textile recycling machine. Customers can take their old clothes to the studio, where skilled artisans will help use them to create a new piece. Musa says, “I thought about how I would connect different people through fashion and bring them together to speak the same language of fashion and sustainable lifestyle.”

— Leslie Robinson ’21 (MFA1)