March 8, 2013
ARTS & LEISURE | B1
The Phillipian
WEST QUAD NORTH FASHION SHOW 2013 Victoria Skrivanos // Photos by Emmie Avvakumova
Over a dozen student models clothed in avant-garde, student-designed pieces walked the runway in the annual West Quad North (WQN) Fashion Show this past Friday in Kemper Auditorium. Abby Chung ’13, coordinator, Emmie Avvakumova ’14 and Graham Johns ’14, assistant coordinators, organized this year’s fashion show. The show was enlivened by the performance of the Yorkies, Andover’s all-male a cappella group. The WQN Cluster Council will donate ticket-sale profits to Wings and Hooves Therapeutic Riding, Inc., a program in East Kingston, NH, that offers therapeutic horseback riding to children and adults with developmental challenges. “Providing an outlet for creativity of this type is more important than having many other types of events, because it caters to the people who may indeed pursue a career in the multi-billion dollar fashion industry. On a fundamental level, the show differs from many others in that the amount of student work and creativity is unmatched,” said Johns.
“Dusk” by Sophiya Chiang ’14 “My line is called ‘Dusk’ because I drew inspiration from that beautiful transition from day to night. Basically my line was a play between different contrasts,” said Chiang. Chiang’s favorite of her two designs was a dress modeled by Ali Hill ’15. Two layers of white and beige fabric net and a thin line of gold fabric dangling from the sides added a feel of elegance.
“No Sleep” by DJ Bierwirth ’14 Getting out of the box of conventional student fashion design, Bierwirth used everyday household items to create original dresses. Using old issues of The Phillipian, Bierwirth created two dresses with simple bodices attached to tutu-like skirts made up of rolled up newspapers secured with checkered duct tape. Bierwerth designed a third dress using post-it notes.
“Greek Life” by Liz Rao ’14 Rao’s designs for her third WQN fashion show showcased a dress of sheer gauze and a plaid tank top with black leggings. Katherine Tobeason ’14 and Ali Decker ’14 modeled two of her pieces. Rao’s favorite piece was a black dress made from a gold ribbon belt and an old tank dress, modeled by Emily Ewing ’14. According to Rao, it took her over two days to finish the designs.
“Paper Innuendos” by Alex Donovan ’13 Donovan’s paper-based line consisted of a winter dress, modeled by Andrea Vargas ’13, and a spring dress with crepe paper flower shoulders. “For the spring dress, I used newsprint for the body of the dress, crumpled first to give it texture. I made about 12 different flowers out of tissue paper and arranged them near the neckline,” said Donovan.
“Safari” by Caitlin Clancy ’13 Using safari-inspired patterns and cloths, Clancy designed a strapless top decorated with patterns of ferns paired with a black wrap skirt. “I really enjoyed designing this year because it gave me the chance to try something I’ve never done before. My models were up for anything! I used fabrics found at thrift stores,” said Clancy.
“Sink or Swim” by Alex Westfall ’15 and Charlotte Berry ’15 Westfall and Berry created a fashion line inspired by the organic flow of water. Westfall designed a long maxi skirt made of blue-hued fabric cloth strips, while Berry designed a blue empire waist high-low dress covered in sea-colored scales. The skirts trailed, creating the illusion that waves were at their tail.
“Accra” by Eden Livingston ’15 and Caroline Lu ’15 Livingston and Lu’s line included five neon shirts that were shredded into different designs, paired with black leggings and sky-high stilettos. For the finishing touches, they sprayed their models hair and painted their faces with neon color. The inspiration for one of the shirts came from a Kristina Debarge music video, said Livingston.
“Flight” by Zoe Gallagher ’14 Evie Elson ’15 strutted down the runway dressed in Gallagher’s only piece in the fashion show: an elegant black mini dress with a plunging neckline adorned with black, brown and white feathers. Gallagher approached the design process with the trial and error method and used any materials that she came across.
“Cut it Out” by Abby Chung ’13 and Rhea Lewis ’13 Inspired by the cutout clothing trend last spring, Lewis and Chung’s line contained different types of geometric cutouts. Lewis’s favorite piece are leggings with provocative triangles cut down the legs. Chung and Lewis decided to add a twist to this piece by using chains instead of regular fabric as the dress’ back straps.
“Viv by Viv Garth” by Viv Garth ’15 Garth’s designs incorporated soft pastel tones reminiscent of spring. A highlight was the apricot and white lace cocktail dress. “For me, it wasn’t so much the design aspect, but rather the construction of the garments. I really wanted my clothes to be durable, wearable, practical, and cute,” said Garth.
“Achro-Twist” by Cathy Liu ’15, Nicole Navarrete ’15 and Alyssa Augustin ’15. A white top made out of a shiny white fabric and white duct tape, laced in the back with colored ribbons to look like a corset, was the highlight of this futuristic line. “The original vision was to make something really edgy and futuristic looking. The interesting combination of materials and the starkly contrasting colors worked well to attain this goal,” said Liu.
“Culture Shock” by Bella Flynn ’15 Inspired by 1950s fashion in Asia, Flynn added an Eastmeets-West feel to her ethnic clothing line “Culture Shock.” Flynn said that her favorite design was the red and white Chinese qipao-inspired dress, which she also modeled. She topped off all of her designs by asking the models to hold colorful parasols as they walked the runway.
“DJYK” by Dan Kim ’14 The final piece of Kim’s line was a pair of t-shirts linked at the back by E&R clothes hangers intended to represent the friendship of models Pearson Goodman ’13 and Brendan O’Connell ’13. “If you observe carefully, you can see that on [O’Connell’s] back there is the outline of a fish, but it gradually gains ‘flesh’ or substance onto [Goodman’s] shoulder,” said Kim.
“Back to Black” by Gina Sawaya ’13 Sawaya used hot glue to craft a dress of aluminum foil and counterbalanced the visual boldness of the foil by crafting the rest of the dress in plain, sheer black fabric. “[My inspiration] also came from working at a historical society this past summer, so I got to look at the old dresses in there,” said Sawaya.
“Fridelity“ by Mimi Leggett ’13 Inspired by Frida Kahlo’s style, Leggett paired crop tops and skirts in black and white patterns topped off with floral headdresses by Emmie Avvakumova ’14. “I also observed a lot of different styles of dress last year during my time at SYA [School Year Abroad] Spain. I love making crazy patterns combined with black and white, the general color scheme,” said Leggett.
“Lxcuinan“ by Graham Johns ’14 John’s dress consisted of a gray snakeskin fitted top and a mid-thigh navy skirt with an electric green zipper on the back as a finishing touch. “I decided to make a shorter dress that was more wearable, but wanted to make a garment that was still very grounded. That’s why I choose to use the snakeskin,” said John. “It gave the dress a more earthy look that I really liked.”