Students and professors take runway by storm
A dress created from chair parts and lamps, illuminated at the flip of a switch and designed by USU students and two professors of interior design, took home some serious hardware at the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Fashion Remix 2010 Show Oct. 21 in Salt Lake City.
The luminous dress, named “The Age of Innocence” by the team, was a product of more than six months’ design and assembly. The unorthodox dress merited both the Best-in-Show and People’s Choice awards at the event.
Fashion Remix was attended by 45 Utah State students, according to USU interior design lecturer Susie Tibbits.
The proceeds made from the show are to be donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
The team was compiled by USU assistant professor Darrin Brooks and operated under the name of “Darrin Brooks Associates” in order to receive entrance and professional credibility, despite being a university-based crew, said Brooks.
A main purpose of the competition was to display the teams’ ability to create a dress based on items not typically used as clothing. The items were provided by various companies throughout the state.
Darrin Brooks Associates was allied with Humanscale, a company that typically manufacturers accessories for systems furniture.
The team competed against 23 professional architectural and interior design firms in taking home two of the four primary awards.
The “Fire and Ice” dress, created by Interiors West, allied with Forbo, won “Most Innovative Use of Hard Material,” while “La Sirene De La Mar,” a product of Architectural Nexus and Regency Royale, won “Most Innovative Use of Soft Material.”
After competing but taking home no awards last year, members of the team were ecstatic that their creativity and hard work were recognized as they dominated the event.
“It was an amazing feeling to win both (main awards),” Brooks said. “The judges loved the simplicity of our design. It was crisp, clean and cutting-edge.”
The cutting-edge style, particularly because the lamps’ lights illuminated the dress while on stage, was the key to earning the credentials, said senior Nekku Saine, who modeled the dress.
“The (audience) was so intrigued by the lights,” said Saine, a native of Finland. “The judges said we really embraced the materials that we had.”
Saine stunned the audience by turning on the lights and illuminating the dress while she was on the catwalk. Once she had walked about halfway onto the runway, the show’s technicians, on command, turned off the auditorium lights so that Saine could flip a switch on the side of the dress and give its entire bottom half a glow that shocked and impressed the crowd in a moment that graduate student Adam Nelson, one of the team members, described as “super dramatic.”
USU IIDA chapter president Beccah Hardman said the support provided by the Utah State students at the event were critical at that moment, as they cheered the aesthetic twist.
“The enthusiasm from the students as she went down the runway was so important,” said the senior. “It was beautiful design all the way around, especially on the runway. It was magnificent and (the lights) were definitely the element that put us over the top. There was nothing like that in the show this year, or last year.”
Although the bright side of “Age of Innocence,” described by Hardman as “Marie Antoinette in a modern way,” put the team far above the competition, the beauty didn’t come without its share of pain.
“The dress hurt to wear,” said Saine, who had to wear the dress for six straight hours the day of the show after having worn it the previous day in rehearsal. She also traveled to Salt Lake from Logan several times to practice walking on the runway.
“It was digging into my waist. Once I wore it for a long time, it became uncomfortable. But once I saw other people cheering, and appreciate our work, that made it worth it,” she said.
“(The dress) was extremely heavy,” Hardman said. “(Saine) was a trooper.”
The final outcome of a project, begun in April, bore little resemblance to what was originally conceived.
“Our sketch in June didn’t look like the final design at all,” Tibbits said. “We knew it would be far beyond what anyone else was going to do. Design-wise, we knew the lamps could be used to make it very creative. But lighting (the dress) put it over the top.”
“There wasn’t a lot of luck involved,” said Nelson, who was recruited to the team primarily for applying the lights to the dress’ assembly.
Nelson said one would have to travel to Denver to find an accurate comparison of the level of competition they faced.
“A lot of skill and hard work took home the win,” he said.
Tibbits said the success was worth the sacrifices.
“(Fashion Remix) was this extracurricular thing that we didn’t think we had time for, but we did it anyway, because we felt like it was important,” she said. “Winning made all the long nights and weekends worth it.”
Further photos and news of the competition can be viewed atwww.fashionremixslc.wordpress.com.
– rhett.wilkinson@aggiemail.usu.edu