In the auditorium of the Fred P. Pomerantz Arts and Design Center, on stage, to the right of fashion designer and activist Fe Noel, is ‘The Dre$$’ in all its glory. This couture gown, birthed in collaboration with retirement services provider TIAA, is made of artificial American dollar bills of every kind, equaling $1.6 million, to illustrate retirement inequality and address the pay gap between men and women.
The color resembles a shade of cool green. The sleeves on the dress are a signature style for Noel; they are big, puffy cushions that look like clouds from the sky and have been attached to the gown. The top is a corset made completely of money; it’s the kind of corset you have to lace and unlace properly and pull tight if necessary. The skirt is lined with $20s, $50s, and $100s and has the same fabric as the sleeves lining the bottom, which is ruffled out to achieve the fluffy, grand princess effect, contrasting the tight corset at the top. Then, the tail, a 16-foot-long money train, extends off the back of the dress, perfectly resembling a trail of money being left behind.
‘The Dre$$’ debuted in September 2022 during New York Fashion Week. Noel recounts the day of the show as insane. It was the first time a body had been inside the gown, and it was breathtaking. “And then everything went silent, and she started walking from backstage, and the tail was making a sound like shhh, shhh, shhh. There was an anticipation building. It was a surprise, a message to women, and it was like icing on the cake,” Noel said.
Noel is a womenswear designer for her brand Fe Noel and was a 2022 CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund finalist. In a panel discussion, “Explore the Fusion of Finance and Fashion,” hosted by TIAA, she is one of the three women speaking at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
On the panel, she uses the opportunity to share her message and the meaning behind the dress. Noel created the dress with the intention of bringing awareness to the fact that women are still being underpaid, which has resulted in 30% less retirement income.
The projector screen hanging from the ceiling in the auditorium displays the same model who wore ‘The Dre$$’ in September during NYFW. A Black woman who looks regal, refreshed and refined while her skin glows against the pale green money. Black women experience a wider pay gap than all women. Noel is intentional in her decisions and the creative process of how the dress is displayed. “So, the dress is about inequality; as a Black woman, there’s inequality. It was important for me to have this Black beautiful model, and she walked out to Louis Armstrong, and all those elements, all the details, played a part in the energy of the message the gown told,” she said.
Brought to you by TIAA, Fe Noel, founder and designer of ‘Fe Noel’ and CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund recipient responsible for designing “the Dre$$,” and Lynette Khalfani-Cox, a personal finance expert and NYT bestselling author of 15 money-management books, discuss the worlds of fashion and finance and how to best set yourself up for success, Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at FIT in New York. (Photo by Diane Bondareff for TIAA)
Advocacy through fashion is useful, especially the way Noel captivates people and brings awareness to a serious issue that impacts the lives of all women in this country. Noel has other ways to help spread the message and bring attention to women’s inequality. “Because fashion is supposed to always be fun and lighthearted, I always weave a message. It’s always in the storytelling, the photography, or a fashion show. And I ask myself, what do I want people to take away from this? The simplest way I can put it is that I want women to know they have the power. I want women to feel powerful enough to know they are the creators of their lives,” she said.
Regardless of what the issue is or the message Noel wants to share, she makes it a priority to be heard and acknowledged. “That’s why I make clothes that make women feel powerful; that’s why I made this couture gown to empower women as well, and I always push that message to the forefront no matter what I’m doing,” she said.
Noel’s “money dress,” as she calls it, is a proper couture gown and a masterwork considering the design and message. Noel felt obligated to channel and intersect, creating a couture gown while delivering a message about retirement inequality to help people understand the impact of this issue. “I wanted people to physically see. When you call out numbers like women make 30% less than men, therefore, we retire with less, people need to see a visual of the money being lost. When people saw that gown, they gasped,” she said. “It was for me to ask women, do you want to leave this money on the table? Do you feel like you deserve this? And that’s really the mission behind closing the gap. And it’s making women think we can’t let this go; we must take what belongs to us, what’s our, and the dress is a visual way to show that.”
The attention to detail on the money dress is flawless. Bills are everywhere—on the corset, on the skirt, and on the tail of the gown. For Noel, the experiences of designing, creating, and working on this dress are still fresh memories. “The dress was handmade; we spent days, hours, sleepless nights, even the day of the show working because we had to assemble all these bills. We even took it a step further; the bottom skirt of the dress is folded, so all those bills were folded individually, then placed on the dress, and then sewn. The attention to detail on this gown reflects how hard women work. We’re working hard, and we’re sometimes the force that runs a company, but it’s not reflected in how much we get paid, and it’s not reflected in our retirement funds. I wanted this dress to look as detailed as possible; I want it to be a proper couture gown because people know how much work goes into that,” she said.
The gender retirement gap is a large area of focus for this creation. Noel’s plan to make an impact is to be a beacon of light and guide people while staying true to her creative art. “The best way to make an impact is to lead by example. That’s why I want to do these talks more; I want to talk to people, especially young girls, about how money can be used as a creative tool. And I want to inspire and teach and watch someone take that and level up in their own life; that would be the ultimate goal to me,” she said.
Sometimes people go into activism with broad ambitions and no clear direction. Not Noel; her desire to teach, inspire, and motivate women to be powerful comes from her seeking out a very specific demographic that she can reach and appeal to. “There are more messages that I want to bring awareness to, but it’s about it feeling like it makes sense. What do I feel like I can relate to? And I have to make sure it’s authentic to me and what I want to say,” she said. “The gap closing may not happen in my lifetime, but I’m planting the seeds, and someone will have to water it,” she said.
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