Class Acts : Fashion Institute Students Show Off Their Works

The mistress of ceremonies wasn’t taking any chances. “This is NOT streetwear,” Tonian Hohberg, president of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, assured 1,200 luncheon guests, among them Mayor Tom Bradley.

The lights dimmed at the Bonaventure Hotel, the music soared and out came gowns by six graduating theater-costume designers. They were created for an imaginary Venice carnival. But eliminate the telltale mask and Linda Gregory’s black-and-fuschia satin costume could make it to any Los Angeles charity ball.

The real evening gowns, and the real streetwear, followed in a show of work by 10 other graduating fashion design students billed as “the brightest new lights in fashion.”

Damien Dillard, who uses his first name only, was voted “most creative” for his super-short, body-sculpturing apparel made of leather, spandex, satin and fake fur. When the handsome designer took a bow wearing a full, fake ponytail, tuxedo jacket and abbreviated leggings, he was a walking advertisement for his work.

Max Macapagal’s witty, very contemporary cocktail dresses, which looked superb in motion, took this year’s $1,000 Fred Hayman Giorgio award for work that demonstrated “the greatest professionalism, salability, workmanship and creativity.”

The newly established $1,000 Rick Pallack award went to Lorna Smyth for “garments on a highly professional level and a thorough understanding of merchandising.” Smyth’s wool sportswear, lavish in concept and fabric, included a dramatic, double-faced cape worn over a dressy, high-texture sweater and shirred jersey pants.

For her capes, coats, suits, blouses and scarfs--all exhibiting a Southwestern influence and made in unusual fabric mixes such as mohair and mink--Barbara Jax was named “most commercially viable.”

A former school teacher, Jax has already won a number of design contests, including one sponsored by television costumer Nolan Miller. As a result of that win, Jax says, two of her designs will be worn by Joan Collins on future episodes of “Dynasty.”

While the promising designer won’t say how old she is, she cheerfully drops a hint: “If you have a 27-year-old son, you’re not exactly a chicken.” When she enrolled in FIDM in Orange County, “It was 1983 and the height of the punk era,” she recalls with a laugh. “It was a jolt, but once I got used to it, it was great. I updated my image; I changed my hairdo, and now I try to look like the clothing I design.”

Living up to the image can’t be all that easy. According to Jax, she creates “for a fashion-forward woman who cares very much about clothes and loves to travel. She’s not necessarily a career woman, but if she is, she’s earning $50,000 and up.”

Judging by her work, Gracie Wiginton has another customer in mind. Although not singled out for an award, Wiginton’s peasant-theme garments were youthful, offbeat and looked like modern London peppered with Dickens and Shakespeare.

Classmate Jay Ko was equally offbeat and youth oriented with separates that often raised the miniskirt to the maximum. Some of his other peppy designs evoked memories of hat-check girls and cheerleaders.

The $100-per-person scholarship fund-raiser was both a student showcase and a tribute to the May Co. The retail chain received this year’s FIDM California Fashion First Award for “its contribution to the social fabric of Southern California.”