Graduates Have Designs on Marketability
Two fashion design programs, at Woodbury University and Santa Monica College, finished the school year with graduating-student shows last week. And the audiences were impressed.
“You know,” said one viewer at the Woodbury event, “I saw a lot of clothes I could go out and buy, if they were sold in a store.” That sentiment was prevalent throughout the crowd, and it may be the ultimate compliment to any student designer.
Reasonable Interpretations
Part of the reason may have been that many of the garments were reasonable interpretations of looks by cutting-edge designers from the United States and abroad.
Cecelia Pham, who won a prize for her custom-quality tailoring and another for her sportswear designs, showed a cocoa suede dress trimmed with black passementerie that would look at home in a posh, Beverly Hills boutique.
Before she decided on fashion as a career, Pham spent three years as a nuclear reactor operator at Oregon State. Some of that precision and attention to detail shows up in her design work.
Mona Momtaz carried off three awards from Woodbury in the contemporary, evening and flashback (retro fashion) categories. Her black-and-white houndstooth-check dress, trimmed in glossy black fur, looked inspired by Bill Blass. And her black velvet minidress with hooded, velvet cape, encrusted with faux jewels and gold tassels, was clearly a homage to Christian Lacroix.
Winning Look
As was Bonnie McAllister’s frolicsome can-can dress in orange and hot pink. But her winning look was in the burlap category, for which she created a farm-girl outfit. Oversize burlap overalls went with a red-and-white polka-dot top.
Gasps and spontaneous applause filled the room when Linh-Xuan Nguyen’s bridal gown came down the runway. The bubbly Nguyen, a Vietnam native, fashioned a dress with definite cowgirl influences, down to the beaded, silver fringe.
In Woodbury’s best-of-the-show category, the winner was J-Me K (a hip moniker that’s pronounced “Jamie K”), whose clothes seem in sync with Paris designer Jean Paul Gaultier’s irreverent approach to fashion. K’s cheeky bridal gown was replete with recycled soda-can tabs, including the bra top. More interlocking tabs tinkled like wind chimes against an ivory chiffon skirt. It was chosen, a school spokeswoman explained, based on creativity and salability. Some in the audience seemed unconvinced. “Only Cher could wear that dress,” one observer said.
Rounding out the winners at Woodbury, Stacy Seeds got honors in the “cultural exchange” category for a pewter-colored pants outfit with draped pants and bolero jacket, inspired by Middle Eastern folk costumes.
The next evening, at the Santa Monica College school of fashion design and merchandising, two elements stole the show--the children’s clothes and the young models themselves. The self-conscious pre-adolescents mimicked runway models, and the shy, rosy-cheeked toddlers earned their own round of applause.
So did the refined styles of Irene Raskin, whose work took a prize in the contemporary category. She showed a winsome navy dress with lace collar. Other winning looks included Katherine Dyer’s red wool coats that evoked images of English grade school. Kristine Beck’s sassy play clothes would likely be a hit among preteens. She won an award in the menswear and children’s wear category.
Santa Monica’s best-of-show winners were Kristine Beck and Tommy Shenker. But Shenker’s reworking of the little black dress did little to convey why the judges felt he was a star in his field. And Becks’ floral and black ensembles were pleasant, but not obviously outstanding.
On the other hand, Carlo Gholami’s beautifully cut clothes for both sexes--especially his double-breasted, glen plaid jacket with matching miniskirt--showed the strong influence of his idol, Giorgio Armani, and marked him as a definite comer in the industry. He won a number of prizes, including first place in menswear and children’s wear and second place in the evening and career categories.
