ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY NEWSPAPER December 2014, Volume 1 Circulation 115,000+ Page 27: "Style Section" Page 29: "M.F.A. and B.F.A. Costume Design degrees receive accreditation from NASAD" "Graduation Fashion Show named by BizBash as one of San Francisco's Top 100 Events" NASAD Accreditation for MFA and BFA Costume Design, Graduation Fashion Show named by BizBash as one of San Francisco's Top 100 Events http://www.academyart.edu/ san francisco | academy of art university |
December 2014 volume 1 | page 29
STYLE COSTUME DESIGN
M.F.A. and B.F.A. Costume Design degrees receive accreditation from NASAD By the School of Fashion PR team
Academy of Art University has received accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) for M.F.A. and B.F.A. costume design degrees. The costume design program will be housed in the School of Fashion and led by Costume Design Program Coordinator Margaret Whitaker. School of Fashion Executive Director Simon Ungless will oversee the program. Students in the costume design program will benefit not only from the rigorous garment construction techniques taught in the School of Fashion, but also from practical experience
gained through collaboration with both the School of Motion Pictures & Television and the School of Acting. “In recent years we have seen many established fashion designers moving into the world of costume design, such as Christian Lacroix’s ballet costumes for ‘La Source’ and Jean Paul Gaultier’s costumes for movies, such as ‘The Fifth Element’ and ‘The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover,’” said Ungless. “Our students are following their lead and have shown interest in crossing over from fashion design into costume design. With our close proximity to the film industry in Southern California along with San Francisco’s rich history in live performance,
Costume designs from the Spring 2013 production of “Lend Me a Tenor.” Courtesy of the School of Fashion.
there are plenty of opportunities for these young designers to succeed in the costume industry.” The curriculum at the School of Fashion is taught by working artists and designers, which gives students unique access to individuals with exceptional skills and professional contacts. San Francisco’s thriving theater community will enable motivated students to begin assisting local designers and working professionally while pursuing their undergraduate or graduate degrees. M.F.A. Costume Design The 63-unit M.F.A. costume design degree will provide students with advanced study in costume design and garment construction tailored specifically for film. Through research, design and practical construction technique courses, M.F.A. candidates will master skills in classical theatrical performance types prior to focusing their study on design for film. Students in the M.F.A. program will collaborate frequently with instructors and students in both the School of Motion Pictures & Television and the School of Acting, and costume design majors will have multiple opportunities to design for short films by M.F.A. directing students as well as for faculty-produced short films and features. During the course of the program, M.F.A. candidates will complete a final thesis project and compile both a professional portfolio as well as reel footage of their film costume work.
Wooden dresses by Liina Gruener and Marjorie Cox. Courtesy of the School of Fashion.
B.F.A. Costume Design The 132-unit B.F.A. costume design program provides students with basic skills in visual arts, key technical skills and opportunities to practice their craft in active production environments. By combining a rigorous sewing program with industry-specific design courses, students will be prepared to work in theater and film. With high-level sewing and design classes available, undergraduate students will build composition and technical skills through learning to construct corsets and tutus and will have access to millinery, textile, tambour beading and jewelry-making classes. Introductory studio courses provide students
with basic skills in visual arts, including knowledge of drawing and modeling and the study of structure, form, balance, movement and grace. Students will be taught to incorporate color theory, the effects of light, graphic and two-dimensional design, craftsmanship and presentation into their design work. B.F.A. candidates will have the opportunity to design theatrical productions, collaborating with directors, fellow designers and actors to create costumes that support the needs of a play. Additionally, students will have access to School of Motion Pictures & Television directing students and can add film costume design projects to their portfolios.
BIZBASH
Graduation Fashion Show named by BizBash as one of San Francisco’s Top 100 Events 2014 By the School of Fashion PR team Academy of Art University School of Fashion Graduation Fashion Show and Awards Ceremony has been named as the No. 1 San Francisco Fashion Industry Event in BizBash’s inaugural Top 100 list of events in San Francisco. BizBash’s widely renowned Top 100 list includes annual events that are evaluated based on economic impact, buzz, innovation and the event’s prominence within the communities it intends
to serve. Held annually each spring, the show is known for state-of-the-art production with European-style lighting, an LED wall, professional models flown in from across the country and hair and make-up artists from MAC, Aveda and Spoke & Weal Salon. The runway show consists of collaborative collections from B.F.A. students who studied fashion design, knitwear design, technical design, textile design and jewelry and metal arts. A static exhibition and port-
folio review is held ahead of the fashion show to give recruiters, industry executives and designers the opportunity to meet with students and view their work. Over 2,000 guests attend the Graduation Fashion Show each year, including buyers, retailers and members of the international press. In 2014, recruiters and representatives from Abercrombie & Fitch, BCBGMAXAZRIA, Levi’s, Old Navy, Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Li & Fung and The North Face attended the fashion show and exhibit.
Press in attendance included Style.com, Women’s Wear Daily, California Apparel News, The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, C Social Front, Refinery29, Racked, 7x7, Marin Magazine and Haute Living. In addition to showcasing student work, the School of Fashion hosts fashion industry icons as guests of honor to present awards and internships to the graduating students. In 2014, the guests of honor included Rosita Missoni, Angela Missoni, Margherita Maccapani
Missoni and Suzy Menkes, International Vogue Editor of Condé Nast. “The Graduation Fashion Show truly serves as a platform to give students exposure to launch their careers,” said Executive Director of the School of Fashion Simon Ungless. “To be recognized by BizBash for our students’ outstanding work and for the Academy’s influence in the industry is quite an honor. We are thrilled to have our Graduation Fashion Show included in BizBash’s
BizBash continued on 30
page 30 | December 2014 volume 1 | academy of art university | san francisco
STYLE BIZBASH BizBash continued from 29 Top 100 Events for San Francisco.” “When you look at the collective impact of these annual events, it’s clear just how influential live experiences can be, and how San Francisco has grown as a hotbed for groundbreaking gatherings,” says BizBash editor in chief Anna Sekula. “The California city is the home of hundreds of prominent conferences and events that represent huge opportunities for building communities and movements, starting debates, and allowing for the exchange of ideas.” The first San Francisco’s Top 100 Events is available on the BizBash website: http:// bit.ly/11fwY4D.
Courtesy of the School of Fashion.
ORLY RUAIMI
Pop-up art at Facebook By Claire LaRose Academy of Art University jewelry design student Orly Ruaimi has never been afraid to take risks and invest in her dreams. This quality is remarkably evident in her ambitious new collections, and this has not gone unnoticed by Silicon Valley tech giant, Facebook. The social media company, known for its own dedication to creative new ideas, recently invited Ruaimi to host a pop-up shop at their Menlo Park headquarters, highlighting pieces from Ruaimi’s tech-savvy CYBORG collection. “The experience was incredible,” Ruaimi said. “I have been interested for years in creating a line of jewelry that can interact with both our physical and virtual identities. Now that the CYBORG collection is a reality, Facebook headquar-
Courtesy of Orly Ruaimi.
ters was the perfect location to feature the work.” The collection came about as a collaboration between Ruaimi and the technology company Kovio. Kovio produces near-field communication (NFC) tags which can be programmed to launch a specific website when activated by a smartphone. Select pieces within the CYBORG collection are embedded with an NFC tag, meaning that when a smartphone equipped with an NFC reader taps the piece of jewelry a preprogrammed website will pop up on the phone. “I foresee NFC becoming a big deal in the next few years, and I’m excited to be a part of the movement,” said Ruaimi. Though the NFC technology propelled the conceptual basis for the collection, Ruaimi found inspiration for CYBORG’s design through her exploration of abstract painting.
Courtesy of Orly Ruaimi.
“I started working on a series of bold, colorful, abstract paintings as part of a graduate painting seminar at AAU. The shapes that began to appear in my paintings were translated into designs that I laser-cut out of acrylic to form the CYBORG jewelry collection,” explained Ruaimi. “I’m not afraid to make bold design choices, and I wanted the energy that was so apparent in my paintings to be felt in my jewelry as well.” Ruaimi has big plans for the future. “I’m currently working on a giant jewelry sculpture series inspired by the city’s construction projects that I walk by everyday,” said Ruaimi. “The texture of poured concrete and the bent lines of rebar and steel become the finished product, turning the underlying structure of our buildings inside-out. I’m excited to see where this next
Courtesy of Orly Ruaimi.
step takes me.” Ruaimi will be graduating this spring with an M.F.A. in jewelry design from the Academy and will be devoting herself full-time to growing her jewelry design company and developing her other jewelry collections
including a line of wearable, reclaimed sculptures.
Claire LaRose is the Gallery Manager at the George Lawson Gallery.