Students wearing yarn dresses, gas masks, fabric in the shape of mushrooms and other high-fashion designs walked the runway at the 15th annual Art2Wear show Friday evening in the Talley Ballroom. Art2Wear is a student-organized fashion runway show that features work from juniors and seniors in the College of Design.
Embracing the theme “Virtue of Obsession,” nine student designers showcased their distinct fashion lines modeled by fellow students. Anahid Telfeyan, a senior studying art and design, directed the show.
The runway in the Talley Ballroom was surrounded by ticketed seats. General admission tickets cost $30 each. The dark room was illuminated with colored lights as the designer’s hand-picked music played and the models walked the runway.
One of the designers, Quinan Dalton, a junior studying art and design, created a line named “Kingdom,” which included collared shirts, pastel colors and tiny backpacks to portray childlike nostalgia.
“Specifically, I used the house I grew up in as inspiration,” Dalton said. “Conceptually, I wanted to focus on the nostalgia a lot of people have when they think about their childhood homes, and how when you’re a child your house is like your kingdom.”
“MycoLogic,” a collection by Bailey Knight, was based on mycology, or the study of mushrooms. Knight, a junior studying art and design, used natural dying techniques in her pieces to showcase her love of the environment.
“The color palette was one hundred percent defined by the natural dyes that I used, with natural indigo being my feature color,” Knight said. “All the materials were natural fibers — wool, cotton, silk. But also the forms I mostly achieved by draping are representing the textures and shapes of specific mushrooms.”
Leeza Regensburger, a senior studying art and design, was inspired by the phrase “like a moth to a flame” for her collection titled “Moth.” Regensburger’s line centered on the idea of being drawn to a light, or desires in life.
“Leeza asked me to be one of her models at the end of February,” said Kiara Wilson, a junior studying polymer and color chemistry. “Once the clothes were done, she and all of us models would practice walking in the shoes and working on our sass that she wanted us to display with her clothes.”
Katelynn McCorquodale, a sophomore studying art and design and one of Regensburger’s models, said her experience modeling in Art2Wear was gratifying. She said she enjoyed the music, clothes and vibe Regensburger created in her line.
“My experience was lovely; Leeza was so organized with her planning and she was super fun to work with,” McCorquodale said. “She just made the experience so fun, so it was very easy to want to walk on the runway for her.”
Other designers included Angele Gray and Annie Gray Gibbs’ black and white designs named “Vert,” Meaghan Shea’s geometric themed designs that included light blue and yellow stitching on neutral colors titled “Tetra” and Susan Stephens’ “1919,” which featured her “obsession” of crocheting with all her designs incorporating yarn.
Gena Lambrecht, a senior studying industrial design, incorporated the color gold in all her pieces for her collection titled “Gold.” Her models walked to the song “Gold Digger” by Kanye West. Grace Hallman, a junior studying art and design, created the line “Mia” based on how people use their muscles. It included athletic wear with bright orange as the accent color.
Kathleen Davis’ “Dionysian Contagion” was the only line that included all male models. Each model wore a gas mask over his face. Davis, a senior studying industrial design, was inspired by the experience of watching a concert, which she explained as chaos and then slowly comes together.
Students are selected to participate in Art2Wear the semester before the show and receive course credit for the semester-long project.
“There was a jury process in December, where we were juried on two completed looks and illustrations of the entire collection and our concept,” said Bailey Knight, an Art2Wear designer and a junior studying art and design.
The fashion show was originally scheduled to be streamed on the screen on Stafford Commons for free viewing, but the screening was relocated to inside Talley due to rain.
“We couldn’t see the details of the designs as well as if we were in the room, but the zero crowd noise let us feel what the designer’s song choice meant,” said William Kitto, a senior studying mechanical engineering, who watched the show on the TV screen in Talley.
After the fashion show, there was an open reception behind the stage where designers and models showcased their work and talked to guests and family members.
Art2Wear is completely student-run and provides students with the firsthand experience of managing a fashion show. Although the show is for course credit, the experience is fulfilling in many other ways for those involved.
“I’ve wanted to be a fashion designer since I was little, and I started going to A2W when I was in high school, so it was always kind of a dream of mine to be in it,” Dalton said. “It feels great to be part of the tradition and everything. Honestly I didn’t know what to expect going in. It was amazing though, and I definitely want to do it again next year.”
A model shows a scarf from a collection called Gold by Gena Lambrecht, an industrial design major. The Art2Wear fashion show, which is organized by and features College of Design students, took place on April 22nd at Talley Student Union.
