Photo: Clark Atlanta University Students Create Holocaust Dress

ATLANTA, GA -- Two Clark Atlanta University students have created a shocking and poignant fashion statement: a Holocaust memorial dress.

Fashion design students Niambi Davenport and Lenora Gray have been applauded for the artistic dress, which was made to honor Jewish fashion designers who were slaughtered in Nazi Germany during World War II.

The dress will be on display March 29 at CAU's Center for Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium.

Constructed of paper, the dress is decorated with shards of Plexiglass inscribed with the names of persecuted designers of Jewish heritage.

It debuted at a January event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust, the university said.

"The reaction was one of amazement," Davenport said in a statement. "No one could believe the dress was made with paper."

"The dress symbolizes a lot of pain, but the beauty behind it is amazing," said dress co- creator Gray, who added that she was personally moved by the dress and its significance. "To know the significance of Jewish designers in the fashion industry, and to know that was unjustly taken away from them, it really hurt me," she continued.

After the March showing, the dress will join a traveling exhibit beginning April 27 in association with the Goethe-Zentrum/German Cultural Center and the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.

The creative duo hopes to raise enough funds for the dress, which was created under the tutelage of senior lecturer Cynthanie Sumpter of CAU's Art and Fashion Department, to be displayed in Germany.

"It's an amazing feeling to know something I helped create was liked so much they want the world to see it," said Davenport.

Image courtesy of CAU