Fashion Schau in the Here and Now

The eleventh-annual schau produced by SERVitecture showcased DIY fashion designs on a runway surrounded by enthusiastic students, faculty, and guests.

Fashion Schau in the Here and Now

Just an hour before the opening of Fashion Schau XI, a Singer sewing machine on the 3rd-floor studio was still attaching shimmering green wings to the blouse of an Alebrijes-inspired design. The spirit-guide garb evoked the otherworldly mirth and mischief of the DIY haute couture that has been the hallmark of the Fashion Schau runway for more than a decade.

Produced by SERVitecture, a service organization of Knowlton School students, this year’s Schau raised $1,000 for Dress for Success Columbus, a non-profit organization that empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire, and career development tools.

This year’s animating design theme was distortion, whose interpretation through textures, colors, fabrics, and concepts ranged from nuanced to wedding-registry extremes. Of note, there was less formalwear than in years past and, with the green-skirted exception of Polomino and Capps’s homage to the whimsical protective spirit of Mexican lore, there was not a pleated tier of tulle in sight. This year’s Schau highlighted, by and large, fashion as function, emphasizing a comfort-over-restraint aesthetic that declaimed bougie pretensions. The downsized glitz and glam was as sparse as a haiku—yet every bit as poignant and focused.

A model standing on a pedestal in front of a fashion show crowd

Fittingly, the runway called in casual attire apropos of remote work—veering at times into the seams of comfy couch-wear. The disconnect between the anonymity of common-wear and their handcrafted embellishments—that included tears and typefaces—created a sartorial tension between public proclamation and private interiors.

All catwalks point to the future and several designers stirred the tea leaves to predict tomorrow’s yet-to-be chic couture. The team of Loversidge, Karam, Alvarado, and Roxas created a fringe of paperclip lines that billowed under the exposed cage supports adorning their two models in a nod to breezy, outdoor ornamental-wear.  

A woman modeling a skirt of fringe paperclips at the XI Fashion Schau

Eschewing intricate thread counts in lieu of fractal imagery, Loyola’s design—a model moving behind a screen of collaged and pixelated portraiture—deconstructed the clothed-body significations of traditional fashion and highlighted photography’s distorting orthodoxies.  

The evening’s choreographical inflection came with the Foley-designed matrimonial march between a black cardboard-clad model (Foley) and a veiled partner in a neck-to-toe layering of recycled architectural renderings as a resplendent gown. A crowd-pleasing unveiling revealed a Janus-faced bride whose eyes-in-the-back-of-the-head mask effect was achieved by Foley 3D scanning Ryan and creating a 1:1 closed polysurface in Rhino.  

Two models walk the fashion shau runway in their award-winning designs

Announcing designer Dan Foley and model Jack Ryan as the winner of the Schau’s highest honor, the Golden T-Square, eleven-time juror Jackie Gargus said: “We’ve never seen anything like this before. The sheer theatricality of it, as well as the big reveal at the end, was amazing. This was a project that the students put to use skills they developed for studio work: they designed things that could not be done by people who were not architects, and that was really appreciated.”

 

Golden T-Square
Designer: Dan Foley
Models: Jack Ryan, Dan Foley

Silver T-Square & People’s Choice Award
Designer: Fernanda Loyola
Model: Paige Kadar

Bronze T-Square
Designers: Katie Loversidge, Cole Karam, Omar Alvarado, Kristoffer Roxas
Models: Katie Loversidge, Cole Karam

Honorable Mention
Designers: Jacqueline Reyes Polomino, Madalyn Capps, Lissette Reyes Polomino
Model: Jacqueline Reyes Polomino

Faculty Jury
Jackie Gargus
Karla Trott
Andrew Cruse

SERVitecture Fashion Schau XI Committee
Lindsay James, Servitecture President
Rachel Curtis
Aastha Shankar
Kallie Holman
Robin Barth
Meredith McKeon
Sydney Stuermer