Runway Ready: Behind the Scenes of the Upcoming Stephens College Fashion Show
Stephen’s College is set to host the 82nd annual The Collections fashion show in April, which highlights student designs and garments under a single theme. While the designers that have their garment collections in the show are at the forefront, behind them is a robust team of faculty, staff and students that keep the show running with model management, marketing, and production.
Monica McMurry, the former Dean of the School of Design for Stephens and current chair of the fashion show, says that the show is a focal point for students to hone their craft towards. They become extremely invested, with often much more than a semester’s work put into the final product. McMurry says that discussions about color palette, themes, and other communal decisions can be heated, but she takes it on the chin as involvement and passion from her students.
Sustainability
Caitlyn Arnold’s moodboards and work area in the fashion lab are full of pastel colors, beach photos, and frilly fabrics. This was exactly her intention: rooted in the style of her collection is a strong sense of who might be buying the garments she designed and made for the collection. A beach-loving, East Coast woman who might take a dip in the ocean or take on the town to go shopping. The florals and fun atmosphere were at the heart of Arnold’s designs.
What differentiates these garments from similar ones already on the market is Arnold’s commitment to sustainability and upcycling.
Throughout her designs and collection and numerous upcycled handkerchiefs, placements, and old sheets that she has refurbished and used for the feminine, modern garments.
“It started as a fun hobby,” Arnold said regarding her collection of vintage handkerchiefs that she’s now utilized as patches for her garments. “I really love upcycling and recycling different materials (. . . ) so just grabbing inspiration from that and putting that into my garments.”
Sustainable fashion is at the core of the curriculum at Stephens, with a focus on the materials that make up the clothes that students will eventually create and how they are made. For Arnold, this was a key part of her perspective while creating her senior collection.
“There’s already so much stuff in the world,” Arnold said. “So we might as well use what we have.”
Weaving Passions
Senior Lena Hunziker admitted that she was initially a bit intimidated by the assignment of creating the fashion collection that all graduating seniors have to produce. The school gives students a free runway to be as creative and specific as they want, which seemed like a lot of open space to narrow down to.
However, the answer for Hunziker came down to the combination of her two passions: fashion and volleyball.
As a volleyball player for Stephens, originally from Sweden, Hunziker is familiar with the gameday fashion that is taking over the fashion world. She wanted to include the high-glamor fashion choices that athletes make in the entrance tunnel before a game and pay special attention to taller women in her designs. She was tasked with doing all the designs and fittings for her models, and now has the long process of sewing and finishing her garments left.
Hunziker’s designs include more typically masculine looks, like blazers, vests, and button down shirts with more feminine tailoring and asymmetrical designs.
Like many of her peers, Hunziker’s collection came from a weaving together of her personal interests and background. This, of course, means that the group of collections being shown in the upcoming fashion show vary widely.
“(All the collections) are very different, so we knew it was going to be hard,” Hunziker said about coming to a central theme for the group of seniors in her cohort. “But now we have a (theme) that includes all of us and really represents our theme of heritage.”
Heritage and Clothing
Arin Hawk focused on her own personal heritage for her collection, taking inspiration from Chicago and the 70s jazz scene for her fabrics, colors, and designs.
“I feel like a lot of Black Americans can definitely relate to the idea that we don’t necessarily have the same cultural heritage or connection that European families have because of slavery,” Hawk said. “For my family, not knowing our connection to Africa, a lot of what my family has in terms of culture and what we have loved and cherished and passed on is in music.”
Hawk said that just looking through family photos was enough to get her started on the idea for her collection - she was naturally drawn to a specific feel, with a decisive, rich color scheme. The goal of her collection was to cater to the “modern dandy,” as she calls it. Business casual but with a flare and vibrancy that artists could wear the same outfit to the office as they could to perform at a jazz club.
“I wanted it to feel like jazz, a sense of belonging,” Hawk said.
Past and Future Successes
The number five holds a lot of significance to Sofia Schaefer Ramos: it’s how many points a star has (and her mom has always called her “my little star”); it’s the number of people in her family; and it’s the number of times Brazil has won the World Cup.
Her collection Penta is a collection of all of these things. Schaefer Ramos collected old jerseys and sportswear to create high-end streetwear, inspired by soccer and the memories she had of it from growing up in Brazil. From going to the soccer stadium with her grandfather when she was young to now being a goalie for Stephens’ team, Schaefer Ramos grew up completely surrounded by soccer. She said she felt like bringing that to her senior collection was the obvious thing to do.
Her collection utilizes mostly upcycled denim and jerseys, along with lots of hand-beading and embroidery, to make the streetwear looks for both men and women.
One of the more exciting parts, for Schaefer Ramos, was the trend forecasting that came along with the creation of her collection. Students perform lots of market research to find holes in the current industry, and Schaefer Ramos said that it was fulfilling to see major brands like Nike producing designs similar to hers months after she had started creating. She said that it helped her feel confident about her future success once she graduates from Stephens in the spring.
It’s really cool to see that you're right on track right with the zeitgeist,” Schaefer Ramos said. “For me (inspiration)comes a lot from what's the forecast and what direction (the market is going). It’s not just physical pieces, its more what’s the zeitgeist, what's the feeling people are going towards in the next few years and that inspires me a lot as well.”
