Last night, high fashion took up residence in the Court of North Carolina as 15 designers from the Colleges of Textiles and Design showcased months of designing, sewing, weaving and building.
This year’s show was the biggest yet, in both production and crowd turnout. Designs ranged from classic feminine evening wear to architectural pieces that reached more than 12 feet into the sky. Spectators crammed themselves into the Court of North Carolina, covering the green spaces and sidewalks up to the 1911 Building.
Many of the spectators claimed their spot in the audience more than an hour before the show was slated to begin. The crowd grew increasingly excited as the Court filled up, eventually overflowing onto the street behind.
But no one was more excited than the designers and models themselves. Backstage buzzed with activity. Models practiced their walks and designers made last-minute adjustments.
“I’m a little nervous,” Ryan Graham, sophomore in civil engineering and model for the fashion show, said.
Designer Vansana Nolintha, a senior in art and design, spent the minutes before the show dressing model Kate Luckadoo, a senior in communication, who wore a 12-foot tall, white tent dress for Nolintha’s collection, entitled “Prayers and Meditation.”
Nolintha said his travels, which included Cambodia, inspired his collection.
“Everywhere I go I always find each culture has their way of connecting themselves to the divine through different mediums,” he said.
Although Lucakdoo’s piece was cumbersome to wear, she had only positive things to say about Nolintha’s work.
“It’s an amazing piece,” Luckadoo said. “Vansana has done an amazing job.”
The show visited foreign locales, traversed hundreds of years of history and presented strikingly distinct design influences — while some designers used bright colors, others used muted earth tones — some took spectators to modern Asia, others to the Victorian era — some even incorporated recycled materials, such as coffee filters and beer cans, into pieces of their collections.
Applause went wild at the show’s conclusion, nearly drowning out the announcement that designer Justin LeBlanc, senior in environmental design in architecture, had been chosen to present his collection, “Seven Deadly Sins,” in the Strut ’08 fashion show, to be held May 3 at North Hills shopping center in Raleigh.
Sights & Sounds
Anti-Gravity:Designers reached new heights with architectural pieces that stretched feet into the air. Twelve-inch collars, 4-foot wings and a 12-foot metal pole adorned many looks that traveled down the runway.
Fruit of the Loom:Several collections featured hand-woven fabrics, such as junior in textile technology and art and design Jenna Bost’s “Elemental,” made up of dresses woven from wire and cotton.
Eclectic Beats:Collections were presented against a backdrop of varying musical genres. Everything from Daft Punk to meditative choir hymns had their place in the show.
Three Cheers:The applause barely ceased from start to finish. Each design invited continued applause from the audience.
The designs
The Japanese Lolita culture created the framework for senior in design Adrienne Mckenzie’s collection “Harajuku Dolls: Coquette Femininity,” the bright colors of which contrasted with the muted browns and earthtones of senior in design Iris Chen’s Parisian cafe-inspired collection, “le café delicieux.”
Sophomore in textile technology and design Eleanor Hoffman’s “Epoque” rooted itself in the Victorian era, senior in design Jessica George’s “Melodic Movement” found inspiration in traditional tribal costuming, and senior in design and chemistry Vansana Nolintha’s “Prayers and Meditation” screamed “ultra-modern.”
This year, some off-beat themes came into play. Both senior in textile technology and design Liz Bradford and first year transfer student in textile technology and design Shelley Smith used recycled materials – coffee filters, plastic bags, beer cans – as the building materials for their collections.
Designers Katelyn Wells, a senior in design, and Meghan Holliday, a senior in textile technology and design, incorporated metal and wire into their pieces.