"Fashion 2002"
Avant-gardements
The Year of the Pleat
By Lamaretta Simmons
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANINE NOCK
Catch Fashion 2002 on May 2, 7 p.m. and May 3, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the SAIC 112 S. Michigan Ave. Ballroom. Tickets are $35 for matinee performance and $40 for evening performances, and must be purchased in advance. For tickets call 312-899-5231.
 | Illustration by Alicja Tatina |
If you are like me - and really, let's be honest, most of you are -then you don't know diddly squat about fashion. Even with the help of CNN's hoity-toity, yet ancient, mistress of style Elsa Klensch, I have yet to break into haute couture or avant-garde fashion circles. I still think that stonewashed is a "look," and that M.C. Hammer's balloon pants are coming back. Well, not really. But that could all change, as I recently hob-knobbed with the graduating designers featured in Fashion 2002, the runway show featuring the creative masterpieces of students in the Fashion Design Program at SAIC. And let me tell you, they are bringing an artist's touch to fashion and taking fashion to the height of art.
Held each year, the fashion show not only features the designs of students, but gives these novice fashion designers the chance to have their creations flaunted by professional models from the Chicago area - now if we could just get that double-fudge-dipped Tyson Beckford guy I'd be all smiles. Anyway, this year's show features over 112 garments for women and men, and reflects the students' varied and artistic stylistic decisions.
Andrea Reynders, the chair of the Fashion Department, and the ringleader (read: teacher) of this flock, said of the graduating class, "They are all fabulous. Their creativity is just amazing. ... They are a very compatible and close knit class with a lot of talent."
Fashion 2002, after being denied an exhibition slot at the G2 gallery, will be held in the 112 S. Michigan Ballroom, and is directed by the expert eye of SAIC alum Earl Pickens, who is currently residing in Paris and designing his own collection. Pickens cut his couturier-teeth for 13 years under the tutelage of renowned designer Jean Charles de Castelbajac.
The show features designs by students at all levels in the Fashion program, though the seniors take center stage, since each of them can enter five pieces - more than any of the underclassmen. So, I decided, with their help of course, to take my unfashionable self down to the 10th floor and see their designs in-process being fitted, hanging on headless mannequins, and even as slices of fabric lying prostrate on a table. They kindly walked me through and tried not to laugh at me.
DESIGNING AN ILLUSION:
Heather Reichstadt has incorporated aspects of painting and graphics studies into her designs. Reichstadt will offer four designs for men and one women's outfit in the runway show. Reichstadt used elements of lighting and shadow, combined with the use of stark color contrasts such as patches of red and black on stark white, to create illusions of and manipulate human proportions in her work.
"I took this painting class last semester that was focused on color theory and color study and manipulating hues to create an illusion. So I thought if I can do this with two dimensions it must be really interesting to play with that on the preexisting three dimensional form, and alter it, play with it and create an illusion that kind of makes you question what you are looking at."
Reichstadt's pieces, while showing range, border on the dramatic, with oversized shirts and pants, and asymmetrical, pleated high collars.
On One of The Greatest Challenges of Fashion Design:
"You are always going to see repetition. ... The challenge with fashion is making something timeless."
Reichstadt has been offered a job at a fabric mill in Italy upon graduating.
 | Design by Jin Kim |
DRESSING A MODERN
WARRIOR:
Jin Kim takes the show into serious conceptual territory with her highly modernistic designs based on traditional Japanese samurai warrior garb. Her collection is rather dark compared to some of her colleagues, but is chock full of complex designs and fabric marriages. Asymmetry is a favorite tool of hers, used quite often in her designs; her style is very controlled, fitted, and sleek.
Kim presents as part of her collection a glass-beaded ball skirt, made of heavy wool with a petticoat and a pair of samurai warrior pants also made of heavy wool - a departure from the traditional silks normally used. Fashion show goers should also keep their eyes peeled for a simple looking black jersey dress, with an open back, and finished with an asymmetrical jacket. Kim makes the complex pairing of metallic lace, wool, and leather - the staples of her collection - appear seamless and clean in her finished illustrations.
On the Samurai Inspiration:
"It gives a strong masculine feel and shape, but can also [accentuate] the feminine side of a woman."
A MELLOW FELLOW:
Monsoor Amjed's designs were as yet unfinished at the writing of this piece, but will feature three outfits for women and two for men, which he characterizes as mellow.
"I really wanted mellow. ... I am dealing with a lot of browns and muted pinks and there is just a nice somber quality to them I think, that is softer and more subdued. I am also paying a lot of attention to detail."
About his SAIC Fashion Design Training:
"We're (SAIC's) not like any other school in the U.S. at least, like Parsons [for instance]. There is such a push towards artistic clothing, which I think a lot of us like. Artistic clothing, more avant-garde, the ideal kind of fashion is kind of pushed here, as opposed to the more commercial edged fashions."
 | Design by Heather Reichstadt |
70s FABRICS REBORN:
'Seenae Yi prepares to enthrall guests at the 2002 Fashion runway show with vintage American fabrics utilized to evoke Eastern ethnic dress styles.
Yi's collection features two men's and three women's outfits. Yi worked with a great deal of cotton and other fabrics, like those used for '70s upholstery and printed fabrics like calico, to create a sense of nostalgia for decades past. However, she goes further to mesh those fabrics with Eastern techniques for draping over the body, as illustrated in her large wrapped dress. The dress is wrapped around the body three or four times, depending on the wearer, and the wrap only works in a particular order, so that one has to memorize the "how to" aspect of this garment.
Yi said that mainly with this collection she wanted to try to redefine Western clothing and combine traditional western and eastern styles, adding that she did not want to make the garments necessarily look ethnic, but to inspire a new vocabulary for describing clothes.
On Why Fashion at SAIC is in fact ART:
"Our medium is fabric; we sculpt with fabric. People have preconceived notions about the fashion department and that prevents them from coming in, but all we are trying to do is make a bridge between art and fashion ... what we do is really hard and a lot of work."
SLASHES, SLITS, AND...
ARCHITECTURE?
Alicja Tatina is preparing one men's piece and four women's pieces, all of which, she said, were inspired by Japanese architecture. Tatina's work in sketch form almost rivals her completed wearables. She makes use of a lot of earth-toned fabrics and leather in this collection, but offsets the clothing with beautiful wine-colored shoes and colorful paisley skirts. This graduating designer works a lot with slashes and pleats to give the body form, and make the clothes, when donned, appear sultry and sexy. Tatina also has a keen eye for the power of accessories. However, she incorporates an accessory into the entire design so that instead of acting as an aside, her part leather, part upholstery, reversible tie-up arm cuffs complete the design. Tatina's designs are chic, smart, tailored, and finally strikingly beautiful.
On what fashion is really about at SAIC:
"[SAIC] is definitely more artistic. They push you to really be conceptual and creative. I mean it's not the GAP. Anyone can learn how to sew, it's not that hard. So it really comes down to design. It's all about design."
Whatever your fashion sense, or nonsense, this year's Fashion show is sure to surprise and delight even the most grungy among us. Those who attend the show can partake of some highly conceptual and artistic fashion endeavors while at the same time getting a heads up on a coming trend. This year's trend among students in the department is the pleat. Nearly all those mentioned in this piece are using stylized, modern adaptations of the once stereotypically matronly pleat. Student designers have taken the pleat and translated it into a more hip, modern, and flattering design. But that could be because this is such a close-knit group of young designers. And as Mother's Day fast approaches, those of you looking for a gift, think folds, think modern, think pleats. It is the fashion of tomorrow, made anew by the designers of tomorrow.
But then again, what do I know. ... I'm off to figure out the difference between the colors camel, butterscotch, caramel, and brown.
Design by Heather Reichstadt
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