On a Friday the 2008 Fashion Week kicked off with creations from graduate students from The Academy of Art University. It was a small step for the model - kind but a giant leap for fashion.
The first night under Bryant Park’s famous tent featured fifteen graduate students showing off their new designs to the world of fashion. As their ideas glowed on the model’s bodies, hundreds of people stared in awe at the new generation’s "design architectures" of cloth and even bamboo wood!
The university, which is located in San Francisco, California was established in 1929 and hosts young designers as well as established fashion designers like Calvin Klein, Abercrombie and Fitch, Chloe, Donna Karen, Missoni and much more. As graduates take off in to the real world, trends continue to be created at their Alma Mater, the Academy of Art.
It was their fifth fashion show in Bryant Park; the Spring Collection ’09 presented eight-womenswear collections and three-menswear collections. Each contributed a new look.
“Fashion must go on and create something new,” stated one of the fifteen designers, Warot Subsrisunjai. His signature look is his use of acrylic materials on a woman’s body and his designs are complex.
Warot collaborates with Mike Feeney, a sculptor who creates the acrylic, bronze and nickel, "puzzle pieces," which Warot uses in his designs.
Every piece beautifully complemented the other. Warton’s main colors are grey, black and white and although the colors seem muted the designs are striking.
Soho is Warton’s favorite place in New York City; he says it is because it is a place for artists. He has decided to settle in New York and continue his dreams for designing, “This is my starting point…”
He hopes to eventually work for a big company in fashion. One of his many inspirations includes Man Ray, the painter, and Balenciaga.
Warton thinks that women should do as they dress, “Women should be confident…” and with his newly constructed clothes, confidence can grow as a woman not only walks down the runway but also walks down a street.
Another designer, Daniel Emir Armadillo who was raised in California, says that his muse is his home state, “My creations really embody the California way of life, which is moment to moment…”
Since Daniel was a young man he loved fashion and he always loved to shop. He tells us that the new generation should all wear metal.
His materials were like no other, beautifully created and comfortably worn. His inspirations include, Victor and Rolf, Bernard William and Jean Charles Kristal Bigot.
With his designs, his concept is simply, “…be yourself.”
One of my personal favorite young designers was Kara Laricks, whose simplicity was more or less stunning.
A woman wearing a large dress or a simple blouse with pants is her idea of fashion. It reminded me of the late Yves Saint Laurent’s idea to create comfort as he made pants for women not manly but fashionable.
It was beautiful to see simple clothing being paraded down the runway.
As the fashion show came to an end, the future of fashion was only beginning.
