project. extraordinary by Claudio Robles
Art & Photography / 2026 /
- Photography
- Claudio Robles
- Styling & Fabrication
- Ricardo Arenas
- Makeup
- Juan Jaar
- Hair
- Sergio Estrada
- Editor-at-large
- Czar Van Gaal
- project. extraordinary curated by
- Shibo Chen
The most exciting and surprising moment came when we quite literally struck gold behind one of the last standing MetroCard vending machines, and the timing made it feel even more surreal. We created the entire project in September 2025, just weeks before MetroCards were officially retired and no longer produced, so we knew we were capturing a disappearing piece of New York history at the very last possible moment. We had been set on using something every New Yorker instantly recognizes, something that feels inseparable from the city itself. After moving through a range of ideas, MetroCards felt inevitable. The challenge was sourcing them. We needed around 500, and no one sells used ones in bulk at an accessible price. We asked MTA workers for advice, who suggested checking discard slots across stations. We followed that lead, station after station, only to find one or two cards at a time. Eventually, we were on the verge of letting the idea go.
“We created the entire project in September 2025, just weeks before MetroCards were officially retired and no longer produced, so we knew we were capturing a disappearing piece of New York history at the very last possible moment.”
Then, on 34th Street, at one of the last machines still in use, we decided to look behind it, and found hundreds of discarded MetroCards piled up like buried treasure. Some dated back to 2003, more than two decades of transit history sitting untouched. It felt absurd, unexpected, and strangely poetic. We gathered as many as we could, washed them in my kitchen sink, and Ricardo transformed them into this dress in just two days. The entire process felt like a true New York story, taking something the city was on the brink of discarding forever and reimagining it as something beautiful, something with new life, something you can actually wear.
