AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

The National Museum of African American History and Culture collection includes one of the original Black Panther costumes worn by Chadwick Boseman. The hero suit was featured in the exhibition “Afro-futurism: A History of Black Futures.” This costume has high cultural significance and everyone involved understood the importance of creating a mannequin that could represent both the Black Panther and Chadwick Boseman in a strong and naturalistic pose. The mannequin was made of archival materials selected to help preserve the vulnerable and deteriorating synthetics of the costume, and included an invisible support system to allow for 360-degree viewing. The project combined digital and traditional processing methods including white-light scanning, CNC routing, hand sewing and needle felting. This presentation will cover the design and fabrication process from research and consultation through digital sculpting, milling and finishing steps. We will discuss the challenges, innovation, collaboration and successes of this process.