After spending $3,000, Asli Whitham completed her senior fashion show collection.

Based on the song ‘Wrong’ by Depeche Mode, Whitham, a senior fashion design major, designed 11 pieces for her collection: multiple pairs of skinny jeans, loose organza tops and a couple pairs of shorts.

Whitham will be the third designer to show her collection at the 2010 Senior Fashion Show, which takes place Thursday at 12:30 p.m. and Friday at 7 p.m.

Since their freshman year, senior fashion design majors studied and learned how to create a collection of clothing, which they will now showcase at the annual senior fashion show. Some of these students have stayed up for days perfecting their looks and tweaking their clothing to their ideal styles.

Friday night will mark the official end of the work done on the students’ collections when their models walk the runway in the clothing the students have designed. Whitham said she is somewhat disappointed that the show is on the same day as MayFest, and she expects it will discourage non-fashion students from attending the show.

Whitham dealt with a death in the family as she finished her collection, which she said made it more difficult for her to complete her pieces to the level of perfection she had hoped.

‘It’s been pretty hard because it’s not easy to coordinate with your models,’ Whitham said. ‘It’s not that much to finish the last week, but when everything needs a little something added onto it, it adds up to a lot of stuff.’

Avery Carter, a senior fashion design major who gained inspiration for her collection through military influences and dolls, said the hardest part of the process is the large workload.

‘I’ve spent 18 hours a day doing work, including going to class,’ Carter said. ‘It’s definitely a nonstop collection. It doesn’t really bother me. I just keep going because the end result is so close you can almost taste it.’

Carter said sacrificing sleep is well worth the final product, which for her has been very rewarding. Her collection has clothes with tough structures but also features fun and frilly pieces.

Carter has 18 clothing items in her collection, which stem from seven looks including military jackets, a short mini dress with floral silk, a pair of pants, skirts, and multiple blouses and shirts. Carter said she is able to mix and match with the pieces in her collection, which she considers to be very versatile.

Every time Carter finished another garment for the collection she said she got excited, even if it was just a simple skirt. While pushing the limits, Carter tried to make her clothing accessible and something that women would love.

‘You go through all this work of making samples, cutting fabrics, and when it’s finished it’s such a relief,’ Carter said. ‘I’m so passionate about it that when I can see it all come together it’s so exciting. It’s stressful but worth it.’

Over the course of the semester, professionals from the fashion industry have come to Syracuse University to critique the senior fashion design majors’ work. Mary McFadden, a fashion designer with a long career in the industry and a past editor at Vogue, was one of the people to critique the students’ work. Carter said it is good to have real-life perspective from an industry insider.

‘She has a different eye and some people appreciate it and some people don’t. She came to my collection, looked at it and just said, ‘I love it, don’t change a thing.’ So at that point it was just validation that I was doing something right,’ Carter said. ‘Not everyone will like it, but she did.’

But Carter has encountered some rocky patches.

When she was making an asymmetrical jacket with a specific pattern, she was cutting a detailed part for the inside, which she said was very complicated. After she had finished all the fabric, it hit her. She was cutting it all the wrong way.

‘There was no more fabric, so we had to order more and luckily we were able to get it in time,’ Carter said. ‘It was one of those moments where you realize you did something wrong, and that was one of the stupidest moments I’ve had working on my collection.’

Carter has had other frustrating experiences. She said she has made clothes that resemble a bad ‘80s prom dress or something that would belong in a Baby Phat collection. After a few missteps, she said her vision is finally being conveyed through the clothing.

Whitham said the past few months have been difficult preparing for the collection. But if she did not do this, then fashion design would not have been the right career path for her, she said.

‘It’s a huge expense, but it will be worth it when it’s all over,’ Whitham said. ‘It’s given me a taste of what’s to come in the future.’

rltoback@syr.edu

Published on April 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm