statement The Mercyhurst University Fashion Merchandising Newsletter Fall/Winter 2015 Issue
FALL FASHION
FIND OUT WHAT’S IN STORE THIS SEASON
FINE CHINA
Athleisure FASHION’S LATEST TREND
HITS THE GROUND RUNNING
MET GALA EXHIBIT STRIKES GOLD
1
About the Issue
What’s in a Name? Last spring, the newsletter staff decided the Mercyhurst Fashion Newsletter could use a bit of a facelift. We chose to rename the newsletter Statement based on your votes and the idea that the name has a double meaning being both fashion-related in the sense of a “statement piece” and writing related in reference to stating one’s personal opinion. This first ever Fall Edition of Statement features fall, sports and fashion. On behalf of the staff, I hope you all are pleased with what we have put much time and effort into making this re-launch as successful as possible. With the rise of athleisure on trend, Olivia and I thought now would be the perfect time to highlight this new spin on athletic style while also featuring some of our own talented athletes in the fashion department. Our cover girls, Gabby Stepanovic (Junior), Marissa Peltz (Junior) and Gabrielle McGrogan (Sophomore) are current MU
cheerleaders at Mercyhrust and have both spirit and style down pat. Since my start at Mercyhurst, I had my eye on the prize of being granted the title of Editor-in-Chief of the Fashion Newsletter. Now, here I am ready to take charge and change the face of the newsletter for years to come. Fashion and journalism are two neat little interests of mine that I am lucky enough to be able to put together and make something out of. Making a statement in college is a goal of many, and after the publication of this newsletter, I hope I can say I made mine.
Katy Huff Editor-in-Chief
New semester. New name. New issue. We are moving towards an even better publication and I am thrilled to be involved with the process. When I first toured Mercyhurst my junior year of high school, I was given a copy of the fashion department newsletter and immediately knew it was something that I wanted to be involved with. Seeing how the newsletter has evolved over the past years is proof that the Mercyhurst Fashion Department continues to up its game with all things fashion. When fashion combines with
Statement Makers Top: Rachel Halpin, Caitlin Reddington, Francesca Aloe Bottom: Jessica Trach, Laura Schmiedler, Ami Cornell, Sarah Johnson
Advisor: Jen Craven
written text, a truly marvelous end product is created. Being a part of a talented writing staff makes me even more excited for the outcome of this very first ever issue of Statement. I hope every reader enjoys Statement as much as I enjoyed being a part of the publication.
Olivia Wagner Co-Editor
Table of Contents Cape Town
What you will be wrapping yourself up in this fall
3
What’s in Season
4
Mix it Up / Tone it Down
5
Fall and Winter Trend Report
Opposing fashion trends hit the runway
Dying for Denim
Jeans continue to evolve into new styles this season
Athleisure
How our MU athletes take on fashion’s latest frenzy
7 8
When Fashion Met Art
11
Rebel for Torrid
12
“China: Through the Looking Glass”
Plus sized fashion gets a new collaboration line
Internship Spotlight
Sarah Johnson and Ami Cornell get a head start in the fashion industry
Alumni Advice
Last years grads give insight on snagging a job right after grabbing a diploma
13 15
2
3
Cape Town
The transition fashion lovers make from summer to fall is a sad yet enchanting shift. Saying goodbye to the beloved shorts and bronze tan embodies the monumental trends of fall. Fall is a huge season for designers, as September hounds the infamous Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NYC. Almost all other major fashion capitals over the world prepare to host their own fashion weeks, showcasing the upcoming spring season “in” trends. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it’s time to dive into one of fall’s biggest hits of the season: the cape. This universal piece transforming the realm of outerwear has taken its biggest plunge yet. Essentially the cape can be classified as a sleeveless garment, which drapes over the back and most of the front with an opening down the front. The cape has quite a captivating while still very stylish feel, as it encompasses multiple aspects of modernity while challenging the nature of the basic outerwear silhouette. Taking the market by storm it is clear that capes are transitioning into the new jacket, giving basic outerwear the cold shoulder. This one chic piece can transform the simplest of outfits into a major statement, molding to each and every individual’s unique sense of style. Everything ranging from fitted and ladylike to cropped and structured even to long and sophisticated, the magnitude of options are sure to suit everyone’s taste. This trend will not only dominate the fresh fall season that awaits us, it most certainly is set to take the fashion market by storm. So for those fashion gurus like myself embrace the cape and tis the season to wear a stylish and captivating new outwear silhouette. -RACHEL HALPIN
Fall and Winter Trend Report
Now that everyone is back to school, that can only mean one thing: fall and winter are quickly approaching. Since we live in Erie, this time of year may not be your favorite. It can feel like winter is never ending from November through April. One of my favorite things that makes fall better is all of the new fashion for the year! Here are some of the must-have items for fall and winter you need to add to your wardrobe to make this season better!
4
BY CAITLIN REDDINGTON
ANKLE BOOTIES
Riding boots have been the popular choice of shoe for fall the last couple of years, but ankle booties are quickly taking over! Ankle booties are great because you can dress them up or down, they go with almost any outfit. You can wear them with your favorite pair of skinny jeans or a dress. You can find affordable choices at Macy’s, Marshall’s and JCPenney.
PONCHOS
When I first heard about ponchos coming back in style I had nightmares from when they were popular in the 4th grade. This made me wonder why this trend would ever come back. Don’t worry, the ponchos emerging now are a whole lot better than the ones we wore in elementary school. Ponchos are sure to keep you extra warm in winter! They’re a great way to vamp up any plain outfit. You can find affordable ponchos at Forever 21, Nordstrom Rack and Macy’s.
BUTTON DOWN SKIRT
From street style to celebrity style, button down skirts were seen all over the place this back-to-school season. This is a great item to use while you’re transitioning your outfits from summer to fall. It’s also a good option because you can dress it up and dress it down for a casual look. Be sure to pick one up at Forever 21, Topshop or American Eagle!
PLAID
One of my favorite things about fall is getting to break out all of my favorite plaid clothing items. If you don’t have any plaid in your closet, it’s time to add some! Kate Spade, Chanel and Valentino all showcased plaid in a variety of ways during New York Fashion Week. You can incorporate this trend into your wardrobe through ponchos, coats, skirts and a classic plaid flannel shirt.
Mix it Up
What’s striped and polka dotted and floral all over? The models coming down New York Fashion Week’s runways. Wearing two prints in one outfit may once have been considered a tacky taboo, but now designers are having their fun breaking the rules and mixing it up. Keeping things outrageous in the world of fashion (just as it should be), top designers and fashion icons have given rise to a new trend: combining prints and patterns into single outfits. Whether it’s as playfully feminine as Monique Lhuillier or as fearlessly outlandish as Marc Jacobs, New York Fashion Week had prints flying and our hearts dying to pull off looks that bold. If you think you like what you see, but aren’t quite sure if you are ready to take on this daring trend,
5
start small. Mixing prints and patterns does not always have to be completely outrageous. Take it easy with a small polka dot top and simple floral skirt. Rock a floral pant with a pinstripe blouse. Go grunge with a plaid flannel over a striped top. With fall layering season in our midst, the possibilities are endless for you to take a stab at this trend before it reaches full bloom in the spring. A little print clash goes a long way in terms of making a statement and will still give you a boost of confidence to get you to pro print mixer status. Fashion rules were made to be broken. And not mixing prints and patterns is number one on our hit list. -KATY HUFF
6
Tone it Down
The art of tonal dressing is a relatively new trend that is on the rise in women’s wear and menswear. You might be a tad curious about the basics of tonal dressing, but it is exactly what it sounds like. Tonal dressing is achieved by first choosing one color as your base. Once you have that figured out you can choose various tones and shades of your base color to bring together as the rest of your outfit. Don’t be afraid to mix different textures together as well. That is all part
of making it fit your personal style. A beneficial aspect of tonal dressing is that it slims your body and elongates it. Your eyes naturally follow all of the colors together and don’t stop until they’ve reached the end. The runways may have brought it back, but tons of bloggers and street style specialists are perfecting it. It’s possible for anyone to achieve and is an incredibly chic way of dressing. -FRANCESCA ALOE
7
dying for Denim There are many things in store for Fall of 2015, however, denim is topping the charts. Known to be the solid foundation to any casual or even couture outfit, there are still a few things to keep in mind this season. Designers like Julie de Libran at Sonia Rykiel stressed the importance of uniqueness as she introduced her new 5pocket jean. Cropped, flared, wide legged or even doused in pockets, take a risk the next time you’re shopping for jeans! Julie encourages pushing the boundaries and setting down the skinny jeans. Likewise,
designer Nicolas Ghesquiere at Louis Vuitton impressed everyone with the floor stopping cut out slip dresses and even denim swimwear. Appealing to a more delicate and feminine look, crochet pairs just lovely with denim as showcased by designer Alberta Ferretti. The possibilities are endless but one fashion fad to steer clear from would include the terrifying “denim shoe.” So remember, denim may be versatile but how far is too far? Delicate, bold or even risqué, denim is hot! -JESSICA TRACH
8
Gabby Stepanovic, Junior (Cheer), Hannah Lau, Sophomore (Water Polo), Marissa Peltz, Junior (Cheer), Annie Caminiti, Junior (Golf) & Gabrielle McGrogan, Sophomore (Cheer)
Girls Got Game
Mercyhurst Athletes Bring Style to the Field
MU Fashion girls got serious game, and this year in fashion trends will go hand in hand with their favorite pastimes. The highest rising movement in fashion this season is athleisure—the culmination of sporty, comfortable yet sleek looks that speaks to a generation of fitness and health consciousness. Retailers, manufacturers and designers are looking high and low to find new ways to incorporate athletic styles into ready-to-wear lines.
Whether it is a bomber jacket or jogger pants, new style inspirations coming from this craze are hard to miss. Geared to provide superior comfort and permanence, this movement is also impacting construction methods and textile choices to serve the demands of the on-the-go consumer. Athletes who love fashion can now rejoice that their two loves are teaming up to take the industry by storm and finish strong.
9
All right, fashion lovers, it’s time we hit the gym… or maybe at least look like we’re ready to hit the gym. For years now, brands like Nike, Lululemon and Adidas have had tremendous success. Shoppers of all athletic levels show their enumeration for sporting the Nike swoosh or the Adidas stripes on their everyday wear. It is no shock, then, that trends inspired by athletic wear are popping up in stores and even in runway shows. This trend means much more to the industry than helping us sweat it out in style, however. What it shows is a need for higher quality performance wear making brands take notice to step up their game in making garments that will go the extra mile. With some athleisure, the trouble of the manufacturer comes from not knowing what his or her garments’ end use will be. In other words, now that both athletes and non-athletes alike are showing interest in work-out wear, picking the right construction techniques
neously fashionable while also meeting the technical demands of sportswear, taking into account the required fibres, fabrics and treatments.” Not only is athleisure changing the way we dress in the gym but on the streets and to class as well. Fast fashion retailers like Forever 21 are offering athletic inspired pieces with Adidas like stripes down the side and sporty silhouettes. Tory Burch even expanded her label by offering her Tory Sport Label. Rapper Kanye West secured a spot in New York Fashion Week this year debuting his athleisure-esque line, Yeezy. Athleisure is also sparking the original athleisure companies like Nike to set themselves apart from these trend copiers with newer textile innovations. To show they are still the top dogs of athletic wear and stay ahead of looming competition, Nike invented the “AeroReact” material that can detect sweat and release and relax itself from the wearer’s body to create maximum comfort and
based on the open target market just got a little more unclear. Under uncertainty, many have decided to ensure quality pieces that can be worn to the gym or for just lounging around. “Athleisure is not only something brands have started to focus on to speak to millennials but to Gen Z as well,” said Melanie Shreffler, senior editorial director for Cassandra at Deep Focus in a CNBC interview. “They’re creating clothing that is not only functional for going to the gym but also street wear.” The Knitting Trade Journal affirms this as it reports an increased demand from clothing manufacturers “to make the Athleisure Collections simulta-
workout longevity. This improvement will keep the true athletes from buying their sportswear from cheaper retailers offering similar styles at less costly prices. The success of this decision seems evident as their recent fiscal Q1 earnings rose 23% to $1.34 a share and sales on the rise by 5% to $8.4 billion. Fashion has always been at the whims of the times, and there is no doubt that Americans today are sport and workout obsessed. From the gym to the streets, athleisure looks like it has a long stretch ahead and will sweat it out in style. –KATY HUFF
10
11
When Art MET Fashion The Metropolitan Museum of Art houses masterpiece after masterpiece. One could easily get lost in its beauty for hours. For the past five months, several galleries were occupied by the Costume Institute’s “China: Through the Looking Glass” exhibition. The galleries showcased the beauty of histor ic Chinese fashion, as well as contemporary garments influenced by the nation’s rich culture. In the end the exhibit was attended by an impressive 815,992 visitors, making it one of the most visited features displayed at the Met, and I was fortunate enough to be one of those visitors. As crazy as it sounds, walking into the first gallery I immediately felt as though I was no longer in a bustling city. Instead it felt as if I was miraculously transported to China via a journey through art and fashion. Traditional Chinese music played and cultural décor served as the backdrop for the fashions; setting a unique mood in every room. One of my favorite galleries in the exhibit focused on customary blue and
white Chinese porcelain. Shards of broken porcelain dishes were intricately placed to make a oneof-a-kind garment. I was astonished to see how the intricate design of the porcelain served as inspiration for exquisite fashions by Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, and other notable designers. Being someone that has both a love for fashion and art, “China: Through the Looking Glass” was incredible to experience. Although I have never been to China, this exhibit was a passageway to cultural beauty. -OLIVIA WAGNER
12
P I H S N R E T N I Y M 13
AUTUMN/WINTER 16/17 PLAID
EXPERIENCE
This summer I interned for Blair Corporation, which sweatshirt embroideries for Fall/Winter 16, one plaid is owned by Orchard Brands. Orchard Brands owns in three way color and one print in three way color. brands such as Haband, Draper’s & Damon’s, Old The challenge of this assignment was to create designs Pueblo Traders and Bedford Fair. Many of these names that speak to a customer who is female, a size 12, aged may seem obscure to us because they market to an 65+ and lives on low to middle class income. Income audience aged 65+, and they focus on their mail order matters because it limits the types of embellishment, customer base. Blair’s corporate headquarters quality of fabric and make is located in my small hometown of Warren, of the designs. I had the Pennsylvania and has been in business for entire summer to comPANTONE: 11-0601 over 110 years. plete the project and During my internship, I learned how to scan present it to the design PANTONE: 19-5320 and catalog artwork, use Abode Illustrator, department, the mercreate flat sketches, create an industry level chants and Human RePANTONE: 17-1456 mood board, make plaids, create prints and sources at the end of the participate in the summer. The woman’s trend forecasting wear merchants chose process. I was in three of my nine designs REPEAT DIMENSIONSL 5.5x 5.5” the office three to manufacture. They days a week and chose my plaid for Spring/Summer 16 and two of spent many of the my sweatshirt designs for F/W 16. days flat sketching Overall, I loved my internship. Everyone was for hours. The very friendly, and I was given creative freedom. I designers would felt as if my work was valued and that I mattered give me a garment to the team. I was treated with respect and given the merchants real-world experience. Though the Blair customwanted to modify. er wouldn’t be everyone’s first choice to design The merchants would go shopping for trends and bring for, it’s a good one to exercise one’s creativity for. The back items they thought our customer would buy. The location of the headquarters is seemingly in the middle design team would collaborate with the merchants on of nowhere, but it has its advantages. Middle of nohow to modify the garment to appeal to our customer. where corporations often have a hard time attracting They would design a new garment, and I would sketch talent, which may be part of the reason I was given it. My sketches were then put in Web PDM to go to “real” work to do. Blair used me as their guinea pig to tech, sourcing and eventually into production oversees. start up their internship program, and I would recomAt the beginning of the summer, I was given an assign- mend it to anyone looking to gain valuable experience ment. I was instructed to do a compare and contrast in a small town setting. analysis of the Blair Core and Classics customer, create -SARAH JOHNSON a mood board for for Autumn/Winter 16, create three EMBROIDERY DESIGN 3 FALL/HOLIDAY 2016/17
PANTONE: 18-1547
PANTONE: 19-5920
CALL OUT: GOLD LUREX THREAD 2.8 MM RHINESTONE
PANTONE: 11-0105
14
She Shoots, She Scores When I first started studying fashion at the collegiate level, I never fully imagined the possibilities and depth of my future career. It wasn’t until CollegeFashionista notified me that I was a part of its prophetic Style Guru intern team that my goals started to become actualized. For those uninformed, CollegeFashionista is a fashion website known throughout the world for featuring articles written by college students for college students. This is my second semester interning as a Style Guru for CollegeFashionista and it’s off to a RAD start! Interning with CollegeFashionista has given me a fresh perspective on fashion writing. I’ve always been interested in editorial fashion, but my skills within this sector were limited strictly to writing. By working with CollegeFashionista, I honed in on my creative skills, improved my confidence and networked with other fashionable people from college campuses all over the world! Through CollegeFashionista, I also had the amazing opportunity to talk directly to industry professionals, including DKNY PR Girl, Aliza Licht. With the great success of my articles and my personal growth at CollegeFashionista, I decided to further explore more positions within the company. That’s right. I’m so obsessed with working for CollegeFashionista that I’m not only working a single internship with the company, but I now have two. I am currently an editorial intern for CollegeFashionista in addition to interning as a Style Guru; double the workload, double the fun. I’m beyond ecstatic to see where my experience at CollegeFashionista takes me. Wherever it leads me, it’s sure to be a stylish adventure. -AMI CORNELL
FASHION TALK:
Ami gets Twitter recognition from DKNY PR GIRL, Aliza Licht during a CollegeFashionista live Twitter chat
15
A Piece of Advice
The Class of 2015 had the highest and quickest job security rate in the history of Mercyhurst’s Fashion Merchandising Department. Many alums had even landed jobs before walking at graduation. As a way to pay tribute and congratulate these successful ladies, we asked them to give a little advice to current students who will be entering the job search soon, and some insight into what their jobs involve. “My most important piece of advice for the Class of 2016 is to NETWORK. Everyone knows somebody in this industry. With American Eagle, I met a contact during my freshman year of college. I kept in touch with the contact I made throughout my four years. When I applied for this job at American Eagle, it was really nice to know someone who has been with the company for a while! They referred me and the people interviewing me were really impressed by this.” -Allyson Gass, Merchandise Order Specialist at American Eagle Headquarters
[
[
“NETWORK. Everyone knows somebody in this industry.”
“Never let your ego get in the way of a job posting. A first job is a first job, and you are never anywhere forever. Learn everything you can along the way to build up your knowledge and get to where you want to be.” -Lauren Smith, Assistant Buyer for Rue21 Plus Size Bottoms and Dresses “So far I have really enjoyed having an ‘insider’s’ look at what’s to come for the following months. It is really exciting to see all of the trends and know what will be featured fashion wise before anyone else does and I love that aspect of it. I like to always be in the know of everything!” -Annalee Burkley, Buyer for Tony Walker & Co Body+Beauty Department
“One of my favorite things about my job has been the trend research, and learning from my buyer and senior assistant buyer how they pick their assortments and forecast what will sell based on our customer and predicted trends.” -Hilary Anderton, Assistant Buyer of Jewelry for Cato Corporation