Dosa’s Christina Kim, MIT Media Lab’s Neri Oxman, Gail Anderson Among 2018 National Design Award Winners
IN IT TO WIN IT: This year the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present its National Design Award for Fashion to Dosa’s Christina Kim.
More than a fashion designer, Kim is an artist, textiles specialist and social activist. Originally from South Korea, she created her clothing label with the help of her mother. With craftsmanship and handwork at the center of her work, Kim has outposts in New York and in Los Angeles. Highlighting workers’ expertise is something she tries to underscore by supporting artisans and traditional technicians. She has worked with such groups as the Self-Employed Women’s Association. In general, she reportedly works with 50 to 200 women at one time.
Repurposing is another priority. Kim’s work was featured in the Cooper Hewitt’s sustainability-focused “Scraps” exhibition in 2016. Kim could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Designer, writer and educator Gail Anderson will be this year’s Lifetime Achievement recipient and landscape architect and photographer Anne Whiston Spirn’s will receive the Design Mind award. Design for America is the honoree for Corporate & Institutional Achievement. Winners will be saluted at an Oct. 18 gala at the Upper East Side museum. Other 2018 NDA winners include Weiss/Manfredi for Architecture Design, Civilization for Communication Design and the MIT Media Lab’s Neri Oxman for Interaction Design. The latter also founded the Mediated Matter Group but is better-known among tabloid readers due to her link to Brad Pitt in recent weeks. Oxman will release work next month, and her projects always generate a lot of interest, according to an MIT Media Lab spokeswoman.
The NDA for Interior Design will go to Oppenheim Architecture + Design; Landscape Architecture will be awarded to Mikyoung Kim Design, and Product Design will be presented to Blu Dot. Cooper Hewitt staffers and supporters will have another reason to celebrate at this year’s NDA. The museum’s director Caroline Baumann received the insignia of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in March.
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