Designer Confidential: Grandma’s Fabrics

Designer Confidential highlights the work of SU's greatest fashion asset: its student designers.

Junior Gareth Brown doesn’t have to travel far to get her work done. This year, the fashion design major has had the good fortune of scoring a house with enough space to set up a studio that she shares with her housemate, a fellow fashion major. The duos’ swoon-worthy space contains all the essential studio accoutrements and more. The brick walls of the room are lined with glossy, fashion books, a mannequin in the corner stands poised to display the girls’ latest designs and a sewing machine sits on a small wooden table, ready to stitch together masterpieces. Below a mood board covered expanse of wall sits a set of shelves filled with boxes of salvaged fabrics.

While working on her 3 piece Geoffrey Beene inspired collection, Brown finally had the chance to dip into this massive stash of vintage fabric remnants. “I was excited to use [the] fabric my mom and I have accumulated over the years,” says Brown. The look of Geoffrey Beene is evoked in Brown’s use of circular geometric construction; inspired by Beene’s own triangular construction technique. “I really like geometric [shapes] in general...” she explains.

Brown is also a fan of mixing vibrant, patterned fabrics with tweeds. Her latest collection fittingly features a variety of unique colors and prints. Her skirt for example features floral patterned sheen polyester and subtle taupe colored cotton, which together, encircle a luxurious navy velvet yolk. The skirt is finished off with a burnt orange lining that adds a tone of warmth to the skirt and the whole thing will be paired with a simple, solid colored top.

Brown further displays her finesse for intricate design in the construction of her outer garment, a unique jacket-cape hybrid. The two outerwear elements are connected via a panel tastefully stitched to the back of the jacket at the top. Brown plays again with patterned wools, this time mixing navy and taupe colored micro check wools with plain wools in the same color scheme. “I never design things that I wouldn’t personally wear,” says Brown. “I think that this [collection] is designed for a younger set of people but the cape is ageless.”

The design of her final piece, a dress, will keep with the circular construction of her skirt and match the shape of the yolk.

“I think I design for people who have an appreciation for something different and [are] attract[ed] to detail,” Brown says.

This past summer, Brown interned in the womenswear department of Lauren Brand a knitwear design company. There, Brown picked up tricks and tackled projects that she says she never would have done in school, including creating stripe layouts and adjusting flats.

“...I was... doing [more than] minimal work. I was a...part of the design team,” she says.

She also interned for Jill Stuart’s FW 2009/10 show, where she observed “...the process of Fashion Week and getting started.” She watched the whole season unfold, from the design conception, to the seemingly endless revisions, to the final product. She feels privileged to have been able to attend the final Fashion Week held at Bryant Park.

Brown says one of her greatest personal design accomplishments occurred early on in her design education. After successfully sewing her junior prom dress, which had “a million pleats,” Brown went on to design both her senior prom dress and her friend’s senior prom dress. For the first time she had to work with another person, and fit her designs to a client’s needs. Brown says this solidified her desire to work in the fashion industry.

“It made [fashion] less shallow to me. [My friend] was so happy and appreciative and I realized [that fashion could inspire] confidence,” she says.

It’s a good thing, too, that Brown decided to stick with this industry, since now those boxes of fabrics that she has saved with her mother over the years can be put to good use.

Her Dream Job: Brown wants to own her own design business rather than designing for someone else. “I wouldn’t want to have to stay true to a brand for the rest of my life,” she says. She is also interested in eco-fashion, specifically; finding new ways of producing fabrics out of wood pulp, recycled wool, and turning old clothes into fresh new pieces. While most designers rely heavily on referencing archived looks and historical costume, Brown hopes to make her own history.

Why you should look out for her: “Hard work is the most important thing to me, and if you work hard at something you love I think that you can take your passion as far as you want to go with it [and be successful],” Brown says.

Her Designer Confidential: The floral fabric she is using for her skirt originally belonged to her grandmother. These fabrics passed down to her make her looks all the more authentically vintage. Her designs are very personal to her, as they are also a part of her family history.

-Amanda Michelson

Designer Confidential: Menswear on Women

Designer Confidential highlights the work of SU's greatest fashion asset: its student designers.

Fashion student Maxi Britt is more than a little rebellious and unconventional in her approach to womenswear design. When she dreamt up her Geoffrey Beene Collection for the juniors’ draping class, she thought about the dust bowl era—oh, and men.

“I try to take parts of menswear and basically design...boys [clothes for] girls...[it] just [feels effortless] and sexy,” she explains. Much of her collection is sewn in tweed, a traditional men's suiting material. To soften the look, she juxtaposes the masculine fabric with flirty feminine ruffles.

The sides of her tweed skirt are flanked with patches, like those found on hunting gear, but with a twist. Done up in floral fabric and silk chiffon, these are decidedly not what you’d find on your Grandpa’s rifleman jacket. Details like these create an image of a woman that is a little rough around the edges, yet still girly.

Her gusto for paired-down elegance is also displayed in a tweed crop top with pleated chiffon across the bustline. Britt is still designing the outwear component of her collection, but has plans to construct a collared cape with pockets and a detachable hood.

Her collection’s color scheme will include earth tones to compliment the fall season. Britt quips, that from the buildings to the muddy surroundings, “...Syracuse is looking very brown to me.”

Because of the unique nature of her collection, Britt admits that her collection may be hard to market to large retailers, however fashion trailblazers will flip for her fun and experimental designs. Britt also relishes her chances to experiment as a designer. “Being a design student is the only [time] you have to be crazy and do something ridiculous and for yourself,” she explains.

Britt is very much inspired by classic American design, such as Halstons’ Heritage line and Ralph Lauren. In fact, she interned for Ralph Lauren, and did a stint at Jill Stuart.

“I’ve definitely [seen] that this is the industry for me,” Britt says of her experiences.

In collaboration with Tim Westbrook, a fellow arts major, Britt founded The Internation, a member-based company that helps students find internships. To join, students can e-mail theinternation@g-mail.com.

Britt is dead-set on a future in the fashion industry. For her, fashion isn’t just about expression, but the different ways that one piece can be interpreted. She says, “My clothes say something about who I am, but on someone else it could say something completely different. The body is a blank canvas.”

Her Dream Job: To design for Ralph Lauren. “The way that the company is structured is that all the [divisions of the] brand... are in the same place, so you can see what’s hot for children, men, and every [other] department,” Britt explains. She also loves that each collection tells a story.

Why You Should Look Out For Her: Britt has a sarcastic and witty demeanor. This sharpness translates into both her edgy designs and work ethic. “I’m very goal-oriented, so if I say I’m going to do something, I will,” she says.

Her Designer Confidential: Britt recognizes that students will have to fight their way into their desired professional fields and she knows the weapon for combat.

“Life is a competition,” she says, “But you’ll win if you don’t let the Man hold you back.”

-Amanda Michelson

Designer Confidential: Femme Fatale

Designer Confidential highlights the work of SU's greatest fashion asset: its student designers.

When Senior Fashion Design major, Leilani Maldonado, moved to New York from Puerto Rico at age 17, she describes the new fashion sense she faced as “a cultural shock.”

At home, Maldonado developed a strong aesthetic with a distinctly Puerto Rican flavor—loud, vibrant colors, bold patterns, and flowy silhouettes. She admits with a warm laugh that if people from Puerto Rico saw some of the styles popular in her new locale, “They would be like ‘what the hell are you doing?’”

But, like all good designers, Maldonado knows how to adapt, and has learned to fuse together her style, cultural background and new lifestyle. All 25 pieces of her upcoming collection must be designed in black, the emblematic color of New York style and uncharted territory for the color-happy designer.

“Doing black is difficult because the fabrics are similar, dull, [gloomy], and it’s [hard] to see details,” says Maldonado. She explains that she purposely picked out black fabrics with something extra, subtle patterns and interesting textures including chiffon, organza, and georgette which add shine and unique character to each of her designs.

Despite her aversion to the shade, Maldonado had no trouble finding a source of inspiration to guide the direction of her all black collection. Maldonado is a graduate of Jose Julian Acosta, a performing arts high school. While at school, she was introduced to Film Noir, the seminal 1940s cinema genre cherished by many for its climactic storytelling and dramatic black-and-white production. In her collection sketches, Maldonado keeps the women’s hair white, to maintain the black-and-white film effect in combination with the black clothing. A frequent motif of Film Noir is the Femme Fatale, a literal "woman of death" who uses her sultry mystique to attract and manipulate unsuspecting victims. Maldonado’s designs play on the characteristic confidence of the Femme Fatale.

“They had bold attitudes and the clothing they wore was just impeccable,” she says. At the same time, she strives to create tastefully sexy clothes for her young audience. “Sometimes [people] label you as something you’re not. You’re either one thing or another, there’s no middle ground,” she says.

Maldonado designs with the confident young woman in mind—and if she's not feeling so confident? The clothes will bring out her inner confidence, she proclaims.

Although Maldonado admits that designing a monochromatic collection was a challenge, she says that she loves to experiment and is driven to constantly tweak and improve her designs. Prior to this collection, she had never designed asymmetrical clothing, but while putting the project together, the asymmetrical pieces have become fast favorites. For future collections, she hopes to further explore geometric and asymmetric construction. Even with her adaptations, Maldonado found a way to bring her ethnic background into the collection, leaving her silhouettes loose and flowing.

Two years ago, Maldonado interned for Puerto Rican Designer, Lisa Thon. Under the direction of Thon, she honed her construction skills, took classes taught by Thon, and rounded out her experience with two weeks of sewing in Thon’s workshop. This year, she was immersed in Fashion Week, fitting and changing models at LelaRose, Jill Stuart, and Duckie Brown. She treasures these experiences as she further learns how to meld her Puerto Rican flavor with New York’s fashion sense.

Dream Job: To put out her own label. The name she devised Carde Maldo- is a combination of her two last names which she takes pride in since they are uncommon both here, and in Puerto Rico.

Why you should look out for her: Maldonado is always game for trying new things . She describes herself as hyper and in constant motion. You’ll never be bored with her work, as it is constantly changing to fit the times.

Designer Confidential: She’s an absolute movie freak and draws a great deal of inspiration from the characters and plotlines of her favorite flicks, as can be seen in her Femme Fatale-oriented collection.

-Amanda Michelson