Having Faith in Times of Tumult
Faith Cooper on Asian Fashion, Art, and Advocacy
This week, we’re featuring Faith Cooper, the founder of the Asian Fashion Archive and an Event Content Manager at at Committee of 100 in NYC. Read on to learn more about her work in the intersection of Asian fashion, art, and advocacy!
“I am a biracial Asian American. My mother is Chinese and my dad is white and American. I was born in London but moved to NC when I was 7 and then moved to NY at 19 years old for college. My Chinese family is from Singapore and I try to visit them every few years.
For me, personally, it was not easy growing up as Asian American in NC. Being biracial also made it very confusing for me. There wasn't a large Asian American community there or anyone I could talk to that could relate. It really wasn't until I moved to New York that I started to fully embrace my Chinese side. New York is so much more diverse with many people from different backgrounds. I didn't feel so much like an outsider like I did in NC. In college, I started taking more classes related to Chinese/Asian culture, including Chinese language courses. As an undergraduate, I studied art history with a minor in Asian Studies. In graduate school, I studied fashion history and theory, with a focus on the cultural relationship between China and the West.
My professional background is very fashion and museum-centered. In college, I gained work experiences at Vogue, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tiffany & Co., International Conde Nast, and Christie's. When I got my undergraduate degree I started working at The Museum at FIT, which is a fashion museum. This past year I also started to get more involved with the Asian American non-profit Apex for Youth as a mentor and associate board member.
In May 2020, I started the Asian Fashion Archive project. I had a lot of time on my hands because I just graduated from my master's program and was stuck at home alone due to COVID-19. Like for many Asian Americans, it was a very difficult year for me, with the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, especially in NY. I had experienced hateful actions aimed at me and I felt very alone and angry. Due to my professional and academic background, I was already familiar with fashion editorials and collections from academic institutions. So I used my past research to put together this IG account as a form of mental therapy for myself. I wanted to show how diverse Asia is and the beauty and positive aspects of a variety of cultures. Oftentimes, you do not see Asian people/culture highlighted within fashion history, so I also wanted it to be a tool to teach others and for people of Asian descent to see themselves in the images I post.
This year, I wanted to extend my project further. One comment I kept seeing was that many people did not know how to learn more about different Asian cultures. So I developed a website with curated lists on different ways one can learn about Asian culture and fashion. I added lists of exhibitions, books, magazines, videos, podcasts, small Asian-owned business directory, and most recently a for students page.”
That’s all for now!
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