About the Museum Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Calendar of Events Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Special Events Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Press
Exhibitions Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Collections Online Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Education Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Visit Cooper-Hewitt Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Join & Support Cooper-Hewitt Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum National Design Awards Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum The Shop at Cooper-Hewitt

Design Blog Design Blog

Design Contest for K-12 Students

Cooper-Hewitt is delighted to once again partner with Google for the Doodle 4 Google design competition.

K-12 students from across the country are challenged to think like designers, using Google’s iconic logo to convey their hopes and dreams inspired by the theme, “If I Could Do Anything I Would….” On May 27, the winning student’s design will be the doodle of the day on the Google home page. The top four designs along with the 40 regional winners will be featured in a special exhibition at Cooper-Hewitt from May 27 through July 8. The exhibition will focus on the creative nature of the design process and will include educational programs for teachers and students.

Classroom Resources

More information about Doodle 4 Google

Quicktake: Rodarte - Behind the Scenes Part 2

Before any mannequin dressing begins, proper museum protocol regarding the intake of objects must be followed. The process generally goes like this:

First, the boxes or crates are opened in a clean and secure gallery or room that has environmental controls (including a specific relative humidity and temperature). The entire uncrating process is always photographed, both for replication purposes when the exhibition is over, and to make sure that any problems are documented immediately.


Exhibition Registrar Melanie Fox photographs the opening of our first Rodarte container.

Next, the contents of the box or container are always checked against the packing list which accompanies the shipment.

The contents of the first box we opened included some incredible things – like the Christian Louboutin and Nicholas Kirkwood shoes, amazing knit tights, and handcut leather leggings. We swooned…

After confirming the contents of the container, we immediately write condition reports for all objects. The reports usually list packing details, as well as any damages or flaws. The person writing the report must be very familiar with the appropriate lexicon to use regarding the type of object, as well as have excellent visual skills. Both written notes and record photographs are taken.

Volunteers from the Fashion Institute of Technology’s graduate program in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory and Museum Practice help out with this time consuming process. Nicole writes the condition report for a skirt from Rodarte’s Fall/Winter 2008 collection while Sarah photographs a jacket from the Fall/Winter 2009 collection.

I was lucky enough to have secured the Carnegie mansion’s “Teak Room” for dressing the mannequins. This moody and mysterious room with its amazing wood carvings and stenciled wall paper is the perfect place to be dressing Rodarte’s most deconstructed and destroyed pieces.


Volunteer Alexis writing condition reports in the “Teak Room”. Notice the Kirkwood and Louboutin shoes on the teak alter…a fitting place for such creations I think.

Quicktake: Rodarte - Behind the Scenes Part 1

The first thing that comes to my mind when planning for an exhibition that has fashion is: how do we want to show the garments? Typically the answer is “on a mannequin”. While there are other ways to showcase clothing, such as hanging (as in the show I recently co-curated at Pratt Manhattan Gallery) or press-mounted into a 2-D shape (like the Maria Cornejo garments in our current Design USA exhibition), mannequins and dress forms provide the ideal architecture to support the garments in the round – as they are intended to be worn by their creators. Here at Cooper-Hewitt, with a nod towards sustainability and our bottom line, we have reused the same inexpensive distressed cardboard papier-mache dress forms for several of our exhibitions, including Fashioning Felt and the 2006 Triennial: Design Life Now, and they will again be used in our upcoming Triennial: Why Design Now? Now, these forms do the job perfectly well…but when the curator of our Quicktake: Rodarte show, Gregory Krum, mentioned that Ralph Pucci might possibly loan us his top of the line mannequins for the show, I was thrilled! For someone who dresses mannequins for exhibition as part of their job, this was like receiving the golden ticket!

After consultations between Cooper-Hewitt’s exhibition team, Krum and Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Pucci’s Manikin line was chosen as the ideal backdrop to showcase Rodarte’s stunning designs. A few months passed by in eager anticipation, and they’ve finally arrived! In 100 pieces! But no fear, we’ve put them back together and our fashion army is now ready for their Rodarte Quicktake!

Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, coming soon.


Exhibitions Registrar Melanie Fox organizes the body parts into piles that form complete mannequins


The Manikin fashion army, ready for their Rodarte!

Design Miami 2009

Design Watch Members recently explored the international design and contemporary art scene in Miami, including exclusive private collection visits and special events with design luminaries.


Inside Design Miami/


Stops included: Cristina Grajales, Droog, Moss, R20th Century, and Gallery R’Pure/François Azambourg


Exploring the Design District at Dacra and the new de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space


Private collection and residential site visits with Rene Gonzalez


Tour of Aqua on Allison Island with Alexander Gorlin


Design Watch enjoying an exhilarating week in Miami

Join Design Watch today for NYC studio visits and events all year long!

Cooper-Hewitt Director

  • By: Paul Herzan
  • | Thursday January 7, 2010
  • | 4 Comment(s)


Over the past several months, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s Search Committee has been hard at work conducting an international search for a new Director. There was tremendous interest in this important position and narrowing the field was a difficult challenge, but in the end we are thrilled with our selection.

I’m delighted to announce that as of March 2010, Bill Moggridge will be Cooper-Hewitt’s fourth director. Bill Moggridge, designer of the first laptop computer in 1980 and co-founder of IDEO, the renowned innovation and design firm, has a global reputation as a designer, having pioneered interaction design and integrated human factors into the design of computer software and hardware.

Please join me in welcoming Bill Moggridge to the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum family. We will be organizing many opportunities this spring for you to get to know Bill and talk about design.

I wish you and your family a very happy new year.

Sincerely,
Paul Herzan
Chairman