2016: The Year According to Mary Ping

Mary Ping is a New York–based designer. In 2001, she launched her eponymous collection, following it the next year with her conceptual line, Slow and Steady Wins the Race. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum at FIT, the RISD Museum, DESTE Foundation, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She is a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Here, she shares her perspective on 2016 in this year’s edition of 2016: The Year According to.

2016 was a year that was bookmarked by the passing of cultural heroes and the dawn of an unknown that has been a reality in the making. Too much to distill, so these ten moments were chosen more about their inherent sense of longevity. We are moving faster than we can keep up in many ways, so paying attention and adhering to a long path is crucial. Memory is a responsibility.

1.
Taryn Simon, The Paperwork and the Will of Capital 

The last show of Taryn Simon‘s I saw was Contraband at Lever House, a photographic series of more than 1,000 items seized at JFK airport and exhaustively documented over five days. It continues to sit with me. Her show at Gagosian at the start of this year had a similar investigative approach. We forget the charged potency that mundane objects sitting in plain sight can carry with them and yet hide so well. From the press release: “Paperwork and the Will of Capital addresses the instability of executive decision-making and the precarious nature of survival”—a foreshadowing of how 2016 ended and the new world order of 2017.

2.
Maira Kalman in Conversation with Rolf Fehlbaum

I’ve been a fan of Maira Kalman since discovering the work of her husband, Tibor Kalman. Oh duh! I thought, a genius with a genius muse at his side. Hearing her speak only made me hope that one day I would get to hang out with her.

3.
Marni, the Final Collection

I’m a huge believer that when women design for women; there is a lot more interesting subtext happening within each thing that goes on the body. Conseulo Castilgioni, the founder of Marni, announced that her Spring 2017 collection was to be her last and that she’d be stepping down to spend more time with her family. Take a few minutes, put the collection on slideshow, and watch in sequence and in its entirety—it’s better than most films.

4.
MoMA : Items A to Z

Working with Paola Antonelli, Michelle Fisher, and the other members of the MoMA Architecture and Design department has been a true highlight of the year, and I am excited that it will continue into the next. The email exchanges alone make my hungry brain feel full while simultaneously forcing me to step up to the plate. The full day’s symposium addressing topics from A to Z in the anthropology of fashion is available to view. I had the challenging task of reminding people about the Rana Plaza factory tragedy with my co-presenter, Carmen Artigas. I hope these world conflicts further cement the need for responsibility in the supply chain.

5.
PYE Pajamas

PYE is a brand based in Hong Kong that truly does go from seed to shirt. They are in charge of planting the cotton, ginning it, weaving it and so forth. Aside from meticulous shirting for men, they also make the best pajamas.

6.
Stranger Things

The Duffer Brothers created the best memory album of the’80s this summer with Stranger Things. It is a shared nostalgia of my generation’s childhood passed onto those who were too young to experience it first-hand. It is also very important to point out at that these are kids spending time together using their imagination, going on adventures, and not looking down at a mini screen in their hands, ignoring each other. I must have watched all the episodes seven times each.

7.
Cass McCombs’s Mangy Love

Cass McCombs’s music has an incredible and inexplicable way of making you listen to all the new work on repeat while also conjuring up all his previous albums at the same time. All of a sudden “Windfall” from Dropping the Writ begins to emerge again from the back of your brain, or “Everything Has to Be Just So” from Big Wheels and Others is waiting to be called up next. The music is timely and timeless, yet untethered to any era or anything. I’m only repeating what has been written many times before, which is that he really is one of the great songwriters of this generation and now that role is more important than ever.

8.
In Valentano, Italy

Many heartfelt thanks goes to the curators and president at Fondation Galeries Lafayette. Without the commission of the Slow and Steady Wins the Race installation for their exhibition in October, I would not have met the Made-in-Town organization in Paris that introduced me to the mind-blowingly amazing enterprise and artisans at Monteneri, an atelier project situated in the 13th-century lakeside town of Valentano. Working side by side with expert leather craftsman who were combining both traditional knowledge from the region and forward thinking practices of lean and green manufacturing made me even more confident in a better future for the endless production cycles created by our own consumption.

9.
Mark Van Yetter at Bridget Donahue

Mark is one of those friends who is just your friend. A pal. A bud. Multiple story lines exist where and how you became friends back in the day. He is also one of those people who will surprise you with the fact that he actually paints and then go on to completely sandbag you with how excellent those paintings are. Mark is both face value and a mystery. Spend some quality time with these paintings and it will be more clear.

10.
Don’t Blink by Robert Frank

Finally, if I had to place some films in a time capsule, this documentary—along with In No Great Hurry, about the life of Saul Leiter—would be immediate choices. Writing about this film won’t illuminate anything, you simply have to watch it. Robert Frank, a Swiss immigrant, responsible for some of the most historically emblematic moments of America.