Student Honored for Sportswear Designs
Soomi Lee is a 24-year-old Korean who makes clothes with New York shapes, California colors and American Indian decorative trims.
That combination of constructed ensembles in vivid hues brought her the top award at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising’s annual student show. Lee received the $1,000 Giorgio Award for most promising designer, who is chosen by FIDM faculty and administrators.
She was among 10 third-year students whose work was featured at the $100-per-person gathering at the downtown Biltmore Hotel, where nouvelle cuisine, silver balloons and Dove chocolate ice cream bars were all part of the party.
Lee’s urban sportswear--jackets, melton coats, suits, dresses and pants--were in a jolting black-and-brights palette.
Other designers were more ethereal: There were tutu-shaped wedding gowns, gold lame and velvet renaissance formals and a group of gauzy, free-form garments worn by models waving white streamers and flags.
In addition to the award from Giorgio Inc. Chairman Fred Hayman, three other students were honored: Celia Forrester, for designs with the most commercial potential (her sportswear was shown over a stream of Valley Girl chatter delivered by one model); Riccardo Perdomo, for most “comprehensive presentation,” and Estevan Ramos for originality.
Other student designers participating in the show were Lourdes Chavez, Susan D’Urso, Sigal Ben-Ari, Heathyr Lawrence, Merete Norskov and Dorothy Szeto.
Also during the luncheon, FIDM President Tonian Hohberg gave Bullock’s Chairman Allen Questrom the school’s “California Fashion First Award” for his store’s promotion of California fashion.
FIDM, with a Downtown Los Angeles campus, has a two-year design program with about 400 students. But the recent show was devoted to the small group of graduates of the Advanced Study Program, whose students are selected by Fashion Design Chairman Mary Stephens.
Top winner Lee, who moved to the United States from Seoul, South Korea, was graduated from Kent State University in Ohio before coming to California. She says she plans a career designing contemporary sportswear.
