 "Photo: Megan Lange")
The ruckus of the fashion show, "Making a Fashion Statement," began at 7 p.m. Friday as models dressed in black and white, with long silver twigs in their hair, walked down the stairs in the lobby of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
The fashion show attracted more than 100 people, filling the Newhouse lobby. While some had to stand on the first floor because there were not enough seats, others walked up to the second floor to watch the show. The show lasted less than an hour, but it definitely left an impression on the audience.
"I thought (the show) was fantastic," Adam Weingarten, second-year graduate student in computer engineering, said. "I thought it was really exciting. And there's some really great stuff there, stuff maybe you'd even see in 'Project Runway.'"
The event publicized a new program, fashion and beauty communications milestone, which is being launched in fall 2007. The program is a collaboration between the Newhouse School and the School of Visual and Performing Arts, and is designed for students who are interested in both fashion design and journalism.
The show on Friday featured conceptual designs and high-end evening wear crafted by fashion design students. The first part of the show was freshman work, which included designs made of muslin, a type of cotton cloth. Showcasing freshman work is something the fashion design department had never done before, said Karen Bakke, department chair of fashion design.
"It's very hard to teach someone how to sew," Bakke said.
The freshmen first started learning how to sew with paper and then upgraded to muslin. When Bakke saw this year's freshman class work, she said she was amazed by the quality of their work. It almost seemed like the freshmen secretly had the seniors come in at night and do the sewing for them, she said.
The clothes were not the only thing that blew the audience away, however. The models' hairstyles for the first half of the show, designed by Jeffrey Mayer, a professor in the fashion design department, caught people's attention as well. Fake locks of fluorescent green, yellow and pink were weaved into the models' hair, topped with silver twigs that were at least 10 inches long.
"In the first section, the hair really went with the outfit," said Ron Nikolli Velves, a sophomore art history major.
And if the first half of the show was exciting, the second half featuring upperclassmen's work went above and beyond. In the second part of the show, the diversity in designs, colors and materials wowed the audience. The dresses dazzled the eyes as they came in burgundy, cream, black, yellow, blue and white, among other colors. The designs resembled those you see in a fashion magazine - bubbly, ruffled, strapless, open-back, floor-length or side-slit, complemented by the materials such as silk, wool, cotton, chiffon and polyester.
"You saw that transition between black and white and full color, and it's so beautiful," said Teresa Casellas, a fashion design senior. "I think that's the best part."
Overall, the uniqueness of each individual piece was the climax of the whole show, said Mallory Bruns, a senior advertising design major and fashion design minor who modeled in the first half of the show.
As people marveled at the students' achievements, the fashion design professors might hold these young designers to a higher standard. As this was a campus fashion show, there is always room for improvement. What the professors wanted the students to take away from this experience was more than a big round of applause and some pretty pictures of their clothes in the spotlight.
"I hope they realize that what they did looked tiny on the runway, and it needs more work," said Todd Conover, a fashion design professor.
But this does not mean the students did not do a good job at the fashion show. Bakke, the fashion design department chair, was pleased to see how successful the event turned out to be.
"If there's a word past fabulous, I would use it," Bakke said.
The fashion show generated excitement not only for the people in the audience, but also for those who were actually working for the show, backstage and onstage alike.
"I'm just thrilled that this is a fun, high-energy event basically," said Laurel Morton, an adjunct professor of the fashion design department who was helping the students dress the models backstage.
Although Morton only saw the second half of the show, she enjoyed it as much as everybody else, if not more.
"I liked the energy and generally the energy of a smaller environment with the stairs," Morton said. "This is a packed house. This is a packed house with a high-energy feeling. The energy was great because it pulled everything together."
Fascinated by the outfit she had to wear and the hairdo with twigs, Stella Berg, a freshman acting major, had a great time modeling for the first part of the show.
"It was a lot of fun, a lot of energy, a lot of being able to become someone else for a few minutes and having fun with that," Berg said. "I enjoyed it a lot."
As "Making a Fashion Statement" came to an end on Friday night, the fashion and beauty communications milestone is just about to kick off.
"(The fashion communications program) definitely had created a lot of buzz among the fashion students on campus," Morton said. "Eyes will be watching to see where it goes and what it does, creating a lot of excitement among the students that are already here, not to mention creating more excitement for the students who are thinking about coming."
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