We have been meaning to publish this feature on the designs by the graduating students of the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. We just never got around to it! But our Ella Brown Couture interview reminded us to share the excellence that comes out of the Academy of Art with you. Here we go with the ones that impressed us and full info. we gathered on their backgrounds and inspiration for the collections they showed at New York Fall Fashion Week, 2008. Hats off to these fine students. The Academy of Art Univeristy, San Francisco, is the only school that shows at the Prestigious New York Fashion Week each year.
Sherise Eways, a fashion designer of Palestinian descent, and Melissa Christensen, Jewelry designer, and Native American from the Mashentucker Pequot Tribe in Connecticut collaborated to create these stunning designs. Christensen manipulated metal by hammering and hand bending to mimic the flow of fabrics used by Eways. Our favorite picks was the gabardine petal dress matched with Silver brooch and a White cashmere coat paired with a Black wool pant and Butterfly necklace.
Jee Hyoung used new forms in architecture in relation to the human body with references to space, volume and movement as inspiration. The quilted textiles are inspired by Toyo Ito’s architectures. She was born and raised in Daegu, South Korea. Jewelry was provided by Quoc Lieu, a University graduate from 2000. Our picks: Black wrap around top matched with a cashmere one strap skirt; and a grey organza quilted jacket matched with a black quilted satin pant.
Juhee found inspiration in the work of Louis I. Kahn, an architect of contradiction whose concepts, though modern and elegant, are constructed of basic and often crude materials. Through his influence, she created a sculptured, geometric silhouette and experimented with different construction techniques for her knitwear. She combined fabrics in different directions to make a single garment; used folding and slide techniques; mixed fully fashion, cut and sew, different gage, slippery and dull yarn and elastic and non-elastic yarn to create her unique construction and texture knit fabrics. Juhee was born and raised in Daegu, South Korea. Our picks: Braided trim cardigan and knit grey dress; and another braided vest, metallic yarn dress.
For Bo’s modern and sophisticated silhouette, she used the shape of the Möbius band as the structural concept and was inspired by double exposure for her textile designs. She used different shades of colors to give perspective between layers. Bo was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. Below are our favorite picks, the grey wool jacket with pink wool skirt; andgrey wool jacket with pink and grey wool skirt.
Shady was born in Khartoum, Sudan and raised in Cairo, Egypt. The song Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) by the Audio Bullys with vocals by Nancy Sinatra influenced the mood of his collection and embodies the mindset of the man wearing his clothes. The silhouette represents the weight of the world on his shoulders but standing strong and being a fighter. Further inspiration was found in Islamic military costume, architecture, the Japanese anime TV show Grendizer, and the work of Shady Abdel Salam, a famous Egyptian cinematographer, director and costume designer. We think Shady will be a household name in future. Our picks: Dark green cotton twill shirt matched with Dark blue wool wide pant, the Brown calfskin jacket matched with brown wool pant; and Dark brown/purple coat and cotton twill pant.
Zegna Baruffa Lane Borgosesia S.p.A and Loro Piana sponsored the yarn for Marie’s knitwear collection in which she utilized the ideas of Japanese art forms origami and noshi (a good luck token made of folded strips of paper) by manipulating her woven fabrics. Op Art is shown as an influence in her contrasting use of black and white. Marie was born in Dearborn, MI and raised in Grosse Ile, MI. Our picks: Black wool cropped jacket, draped sweater and pleated pant; and pleated wool blouse, geometric knit skirt and knit tights.
Born in Pittsburgh, PA and raised in Indiana, PA, Felice created a collection inspired by fiber artists, the arts and crafts movement, nature and the environment. Most evident of her inspiration are her felted-wool applications, which look like dreadlocks. She has blended organic wools and leathers resulting in a sculpturally modern silhouette with a Haight-Asbury feel. Scarves by Fashion and Knitwear Design student, Daniel Emir Armosilla, who will present his Spring ’08 collection in September. We like her black leather honeycomb skirt and dreadlock scarf.
Soo Jung found inspiration for her collection in the movie Blue Swallow (Cheong-yeon) about Park Kyung-won, the first female aviator in Korea. Based on the early 1900s when Korean society was conservative and discriminative against women, the heroine had passion and an independent spirit for her job. Pilot uniforms and Asian influences are reinterpreted by Soo Jung who was born in Yeosu, Korea and raised in Seoul, Korea. Both Soo Jung and Ivanka collaborated with their collection.
Ivanka used the pilot’s point of view overlooking the land from above for her textile inspiration. Instead of using the more traditional patchwork approach to represent the land, she combined textile techniques with hand drawing to create the feel of paintings. She bonded newsprint paper and brown paper to the base fabric, applied pigments using silkscreen techniques and drew patterns using a knife. For some, she used a chef’s torch to create a burnout effect. The overall impression is that of an art piece instead of a typical printed textile. Ivanka was born and raised in Pernik, Bulgaria. 
~Photos: Randy Brooke
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Neon is a big trend for the Spring. I noticed lately many fashionistas are rocking that look out on the catwalk.