Apparel Design and Technology Silhouette Gazette February 2009 Sneak Peeks: Fashion Week recaps Calendar of Events FIT news Study Abroad updates PFA Chicago Trip Good luck to everyone interviewing with Abercrombie this week! (and any other interviews!) Happy March, everyone (well, almost). Hope the year is going well for all of you, so far. We have so much to look forward to: spring break, St. Patrick s Day, the fashion show in April; they are quickly approaching. It ll be summer before you know it! Enjoy Issue numero dos of 2009, and we ll see you in April for the FASHION SHOW! Second Issue of 2009 Show Countdown 35 Days!!! Fashion: 2009 Date: April 4th Show Times: 1pm and 8pn Location: Shively Room @ Ross-Ade Pavilion
Fashion Week! Fall 2009 Fashions are already here! We thought we d comment on some of our personal highlights from the runways with our own style watch... Hatley: Amelia Earhart??? Lauren: It looks like a fox is laying across her shoulder... Hatley: I can t wait to see someone walking around Purdue in this hat! Lauren: It looks like something a Mario Cart character would wear. Hatley: Talk about bag lady Ashley: I can t wait to carry my books around in my hat. Project Runway RTW Fall 2009 from WWD.com The sixth season of Project Runway doesn t have an air date yet, thanks to a legal dispute among the producers and networks, but the final episode filmed Friday was (as usual) more about the spectacle than the clothes. To wit: Some editors were bumped to the seventh row, while TV Guide was front and center. This is lame, one audience member complained about the guest judge, Suzy Menkes." They really should have gotten a celebrity. But nevertheless, there was a little fashion three collections by finalists whose names and faces couldn t be revealed. The first, a city-cool lineup that featured belted jackets and shredded tank tops; the second was more frilly with a sculptural bent, as shown in a bizarre layered tulle coneshaped skirt. But they saved the best for last: a hard-edged collection with a strong linear motif. Straps and panels of leather, silk and wool were manipulated into slick skinny pants, complex sweaters and great coats. That s our pick Page 2
IMPORTANT DATES TO MARK ON YOUR CALENDAR Tuesday, March 3 @ 11:30 JCPenney will present in CSR 255 Wednesday, March 4th @ 7pm: PFA invites you to the Buckle Presentation check your email for more details! Sunday, March 8th @ 2pm: Model Practice / Fit check of garments Friday, March 13th: Fashion Association Scholarship Applications due by 4:30pm in room 226 MTHW, leave with Jeannie Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 8 Daylight Savings! Models Prac/Fit Checks 15 SPRING 22 Make it SEW 29 Models Practice 2 9 16 BREAK 3 JCPenney Present 10 17 ST. PATTY S DAY 23 24 Get er Done 30 Show Week March 2009 31 SG #6 4 Buckle Present 11 18 BREAK 5 12 19 BREAK 25 26 Time is running out Show Week Show Week 6 13 Scholar Apps Due 20 BREAK 7 14 21 SPRING 27 28 Just Do It! Show Week Apparel Design and Technology Students: Don t forget to make your advising appointments with your academic advisor!! Athletes/Priority Students: February 23 March 6 Seniors: February 23 March 6 Juniors: March 9 March 13 Sophomores: March 30-April 10 Freshmen: April 13-April 22 Don t forget to bring your current resume and ask for a degree audit when you go to your meeting. Page 3
Meet Your Communications & Media Team Ashley Powers Senior So who s ready for Spring Break!? I know I am. Besides working like a mad woman on garments for the show, I ll be gracing New York City (apartment/ job hunting hopefully) so that should be fun. And the ever popular Chicago for St. Patrick s Day! (I m Irish so I gotta represent). I m also ready for this snow to be outta here and break out my spring wardrobe I m officially over winter clothes! Argh! Oh p.s. if you haven t seen Kittens Inspired By Kittens on youtube, run immediately to a computer and watch it, you won t be sorry! :) We want to hear from you!! This page will feature interviews from Apparel Design students for our March issue Lauren Freres Freshman I have nothing exciting happening over spring break, so instead I ll tell you all a funny story about the shoes in this picture. They were 4- inch high heels that were SOOO cute and made the outfit. So naturally I had to wear them. Unfortunately, I am not the most graceful person, and ended up slipping and falling down an ENTIRE flight of stairs. This resulted in a broken toe, and a humiliating trip to PUSH in which I had to explain how I broke my toe to THREE different nurses and doctors. I know the expression Beauty is pain, but I never realized fashion was too! Hatley Edgeworth Junior Yes, this is not me, but it is the extension of me aka fatta the catta. She is my beastie of all the beastestes. This is a picture of her as I snuck up behind her while she was sun tanning in Florida. As many of you know, I come to class everyday covered in cat hair from her highness fatta. I don t mind despite my favorite color being black and that s basically the only color I wear. Fatta hair is the best. Fatta and I will be venturing to Florida again for spring break. She s a jet setter to the highest extent. She prefers first class only I don t mind it at all! The best thing that happened to me this weekend was watching Dangerous Beauty: a movie recommended for a History of Fashion assignment. To my surprise it s all about Renaissance Venice and the courtesan. Tons of!?@!# in the movie for you, few and far between, men in the major! Page 4
FIT, NYC, and Me! By Kt Koski Everyone asks, Oh how do you like New York City? My politically correct answer is It s different. Just between you and me, I have no idea. A fashion design student at the Fashion Institute of Technology really doesn t have much time for anything but sewing, designing, the occasional cry, and maybe some sleep (if you re lucky). After living in the City for half a year I can officially say I know nothing more about the City than I did when I arrived in August. After an array of depressing, yet life learning experiences over the summer, I made a 12- hour car ride away from my family, friends, and the life I have known for 21 years. I ve traveled around the world from Paris to Milan to Sydney to the Bahamas yet nothing prepared me for starting life in NYC. My neighbor, a retired supermodel, said to me, You just have to go and live there. If you can live there, you can live anywhere. I know the City isn t made for everyone but if you ever get the chance to live here, take it. You will learn a lot about not only yourself but about others around you. You may not like it but you will then know that wherever in the world that you live, you will thrive. The first semester at FIT was a mixture of frantic sewing, tears, and charcoal covered faces. I went to class from 9 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday with only an hour break for lunch. To those who aren t in fashion design may say, That s just like a regular job, to those in fashion design they know that being on your feet, draping, flat patterning, and huddling over a sewing machine isn t the average work day. The 25 girls in my class stayed in all 8 of my classes day to day. There were eight girls from Madison, Wisconsin, four girls from Korea (who were already designers in their homeland), and a spattering of other girls from around the country. There were 2,500 applicants for my position; I still am amazed I got accepted. I don t have Kat s drawing ability, Angie s sewing ability, or the design aesthetic of Hatley. Yet, here I am. All of the girls have degrees from other schools; I m the youngest, least experienced, and only one without a degree. The fashion show at Purdue each year is always a whirl of excitement and work; imagine a full semester of that. The politics at FIT get jumbled in with the class work making it a tug-of-war between professors. One professor wants a coat made, one wants a formal dress, one wants a blouse, and another wants a full line of illustrated dresses. Oh I didn t mention they want these within 3 days of each other. To get through the day I have to drink 3 cups of coffee, sweat my weight in an 8 th floor sewing lab, and then wake up to do it again the next day. The learning experiences here can t be described until you experience them yourself. For the under-classmen thinking of applying to FIT; Do it! You will never know if you can get in unless you try. It s a lot of hard work to get here and even harder work to stay but it s worth the blood; you have to take matters into your own hands and decide your own fate. FIT Visiting Student Program Update Page 5
FIT, NYC, and Me! By Kt Koski (continued) To every design student: DRAW! SEW! WORK! Dedicate yourself to your craft. A company doesn t want someone who is kind of into fashion. They want someone dedicated, willing to put in extra hours, and to be a hard worker. If this isn t you, re-think your career. People outside of the design world think what we do is easy, boy do they have it wrong! Only you can tell them about your experiences and enlighten them as to how the shirt on their back came to be. As for me in NYC, I have a pair of pants to flat pattern and sew, 50 illustrated croquis to draw, a boned bodice to drape, and dinner to cook. I will be interning for George Simonton over the summer and will be in charge of PR, the Showroom, buttons and trims, and designing some coats. Once I return to Purdue in August I will be living in the lab working on my senior collection. To prepare me for that I am designing an outfit for Versace and the FIT Associate Show. Hilton Hollis is my mentor and a great guy to work with. One last word of advice to leave you with; Dream big! If you don t have something to work toward you will be stuck and stagnant fashion designers don t become famous for their overworked pieces. Create something you love and it will show through your garment. Study Abroad Update: John Hamilton My year in London has been a brilliant adventure thus far. I've met so many wonderful people, and my tutors are amazing at what they do. They have worked for the likes of Vivienne Westwood, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Gap, and many others. My fashion classes have included portfolio; design development, which essentially taught me the "scientific method" if you will, of the design process from inspiration to completed constructed garments; menswear; and millinery, where I am learning official couture hat making (I'm working on a turban at the moment) with Prudence, the official milliner of YSL, Vivienne Westwood, and many more. I'll be taking an advanced draping class as well as more portfolio classes next term. The UK has been full of exciting adventures and lots of traveling throughout the UK and abroad. I am having the best year ever, but I miss everyone at Purdue and look forward to seeing you all in the Fall! Maymester London Study Tour: May 13 to June 7, 2009 All apparel design students are invited to join us for an amazing study tour to London this summer. We will spend three weeks in Europe studying about the International Influences on Retail and Fashion. The study tour includes classes at the London ACCENT Center, research of the retail and fashion stores and centers, guest speakers from London s retail and fashion businesses, visits to museums and historic sites, tours of London, a one-day excursion to Bath to view the historic costume museum, 3-days, 2-nights tour and research in Paris, France, living in a London flat, and much, much more. We still have enrollment space! If you would like to enroll in this study tour, please contact Nancy Strickler at nstrick@purdue.edu TODAY!! Page 6
Ciao dell Italia! By Beth Baker Hello lovely Apparel Design students!! As many of you may already know, I am in Florence, Italy this semester studying abroad. I ve been here for about a month now and I am LOVING IT! I m studying at Accademia Italiana, which is a small art and design university in the heart of the city. We do have a fair share of stuents from abroad here but more than half of the university is made up of Italian students so a lot of the classes are mixed: American and Italian. I am taking six classes which all meet once a week, except for Italian Language which meets four times a week. My classes include everything from 20 th Century Fashion to Marketing to Michelangelo: Life and Works. Most of these classes are focused on learning outside of the classroom. We, as students, are given a chance to experience first hand what we are learning; given we are in such a historical but also fashion forward city; which I think is very cool and exciting. On the weekends I do a lot of exploring in the city as well as enjoy Florence s amazing and exciting nightlife. I also have many weekend trips planned including Prague, Munich, Paris for Spring Break, Venice for Carnival, London, Rome and Pompeii. Well, I hope all is going well back in the W.L. I m sure ALL of you are working very hard on the upcoming fashion show. I miss you all very much! Ciao for now! Florence Update by Morgan Hicks I am taking 5 classes here. I tested into the highest level of Italian. Surprisingly it is my hardest class with the most work. Day to day we take trips out to Florence to the markets, the libraries, etc and practice our Italian. Yesterday we got to go to the studio of Enrico Coveri. I wanted to die it was so amazing. I am also taking History of Costume and History of 20th Century Fashion. These classes are interesting and we will get to visit the Ferragamo Shoe Museum soon! My marketing class travels around Florence finding all the small little places in preparation for a final which is to promote Florence. I am also taking life drawing. I think I am in a lower level because we are currently learning about the basics of art and it's dragging on a bit. I have a lot of spare time and haven't found a use for it since Florence is confused that it is London and has been raining daily. Study Abroad Italian Style Update Page 7
Chic Chicago Exhibit at the Chicago History Museum September 27 2008 July 26 2009. Visited by PFA on February 22. Chic Chicago presents the hallmarks of modern fashion. The exhibition's extraordinary garments date from 1861 to 2004 and represent the most prominent couturiers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Each gown has a strong connection to Chicago and belongs to the Museum's permanent collection. (from the Chicago History Museum website). Page 8