Designer Confidential highlights the work of SU's greatest fashion asset: its student designers.
“We’re exiting an era ...[of] skin tight fits,” says junior fashion design student, Samantha Davis. For Davis, loose, draped fabric is the new tight mini-skirt.
In her collection, Davis will play up the simple beauty and style of quality fabric while eschewing the popularity of suggestive wear. Her target audience for the collection is young but broad; women ranging from teenage-hood to their early thirties, who love cuisine, fine music, traveling, and are discover-oriented, David explains. She believes that as sophisticated women, they should leave a little to the imagination, and instead, showoff the beauty of immaculately detailed clothing.
While emphasizing sophisticated modesty, Davis will be drawing on Geoffrey Beene’s classic method of draping and constructing directly on the dress form. “He embraced the way a fabric moved and the way the female body moved and combined it in a beautiful way,” she says. Her goal is to create, “a simple form with exquisite fabric, and...embrace the natural qualities of the material.”
The form of the garment isn’t the only thing Davis wishes to keep unfussy. “I’m sick of bold colors…” she says, “…they’re everywhere. I’m thinking more natural, like an African sunset.”
In fact, her collection has subtle but noticeable African theme going. One of her key fabrics is a sheer georgette with a giraffe-like print which she will layer over a neutral blush ultra-suede cloth with a plush velour finish.
The bodice will be fitted using a princess seam over the apex, leading to the statement of the piece—a large, three-layered drape over one shoulder that will cascade over the side of the body. Drawing again on her fascination with the organic world, the three-layer drape will mimic the undulating look of a continual wood-grain pattern, or the spiral of a fingerprint.
Davis’s skirt is another demonstration of her desire to play-up up the strong tailoring of her designs. True to her word, she keeps the form simple, creating a pencil skirt that will fall just above the knee. On both sides of the skirt Davis will make slits; a feminized rendition of the cutouts found on Nike athletic shorts. Like the bodice, the skirt will have one strong focal point with braided trimming, and cording embellishing one of the slits.
She is still finalizing the design of her jacket, but is certain that it will involve a statement collar. “Outerwear should be just as exciting as what’s underneath. It should speak with an explanation point and not a period...” Davis says.
Davis is fascinated by patterns and shapes and seeks out inspiration in the world close at hand. Even the shadow of trees on the night sky can resemble a human silhouette, she says.
Ironically, she is also inspired by poorly constructed clothing and constantly envisions ways to make store bought garments better. This desire to rid the world of cheaply manufactured clothing motivates her to keep designing. A fellow designer working next to her interjects, “She is such a harsh critique [of people’s work and her own].”
Davis has a minor in marketing and is not entirely set on working as a designer. Nevertheless, she has a strong passion and appreciation for design, which speaks loudly in her method of emphasizing fabric over flesh.
Her earthy collection parallels her down-to-earth, warm and friendly disposition and the subtle, safari-like theme is bound to make the audience go wild at the fashion show.
-Amanda Michelson
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