Spotlight: Academy of Art University Fall 2014
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
Photo Credit: Getty Images for Academy of Art University
“This group was not scared to push ideas. They are not playing it safe,” said Simon Ungless, director of the Academy of Art University’s School of Fashion on Friday, February 7 at Lincoln Center in New York. He was referring to the 13 design students from the San Francisco-based fashion laboratory who showed fall ’14 looks from eight collections in the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week tents. “The School of Fashion was the first school to show here at Fashion Week,” said Gladys Perint Palmer, the illustrator and executive director of the University’s fashion school, noting that her Masters program students have been showing in New York for almost a decade.
This season, there was a distinct shift into larger, more exaggerated silhouettes and, Ungless noted, more individuality than seen in previous seasons. A total of six womenswear and two menswear collections made up the presentation, and four featured collaborations between fashion and textile design students. Standout looks included Elizabeth Castellon’s futuristic, architectural menswear, Jasmine Gonzales’ over-sized knits inspired by traditional Inuit outerwear and made by hand, and Mingyu Du’s exaggerated shapes, created from recycled army tents and graphic prints, that closed the show.
MFA Fashion Design students spend about six months developing concepts, sourcing materials, building silhouettes, completing toile fittings, and making adjustments before faculty and the show’s stylist Marcell Rocha look over the work. Selection fitting is a two-day process, and the designers are told at the end of the second day if they move forward to show or not. The chosen few arrive in New York a week before the show. “The designers are included in fittings for looks and then final model fittings,” says Ungless. “They are responsible for alterations and finishing, and come to understand that they are accountable for their own success or failure. The collection process completely prepares them for entry into the industry,” he adds.
“The garments look real, better than you could have imagined, when it’s all put together,” said textile design student Andrea Nieto as she walked backstage. She spotted model Gryphon O’Shea who just walked for Lanvin, Haider Ackermann, and Raf Simons at the fall ’14 menswear presentations in Paris. “He’s closing my collection. He’s wearing my designs!” Nieto added.
Fashion student Arijana Kajdić—who was born in Bosnia and immigrated with her family after the war in her homeland during the early ’90s—designed a lace collection, inspired by her grandmother, that required an immense amount of handwork ranging from hand-dyeing to hand-beading. “This commotion just doesn’t exist when you’re working with your headphones in your ears in the studio. You’re focused. You’re creating.” Kajdić observed, “Here, everyone is buzzing with other people’s energy.”
While high-profile post-parties to celebrate designers’ collections typically punctuate Fashion Week presentations, most of the AAU students in town from San Francisco had more pedestrian plans. Many confessed that they’d be spending the evening with family and friends who were seated in the rows behind the editors and influencers at Lincoln Center.
By Jennifer McCullum
Pictured: Model Gryphon O’Shea in a fall ’14 look by Frank Tsai with textiles by Andrea Nieto.
Photo by Getty Images for Academy of Art University
