After an entire school year’s worth of work, 19 seniors in the fashion design program at Syracuse University are ready to showcase their talent.
The Senior Collection Fashion Show will be held Thursday in Goldstein Auditorium at Schine Student Center. The show is open to students and the Syracuse community, and will showcase each senior’s collection of six to eight individual looks.

The collection is part of the designers’ capstone project which maintains a specific theme, said Helena Elston, who is in the class.

Throughout the last year, the design students have devoted each semester to a different part of the fashion show process. In the fall, they brainstormed hundreds of different design ideas and narrowed them down to just six before winter break. The actual construction of the projects began as soon as the students returned to school in January.

To allow the students to fully immerse themselves in the creative process, professors took on the task of organizing the logistics of the show while serving as mentors and confidants to the students, Elston said.

With this creative freedom came a lot of responsibility. The students made their own schedules and organized their own creative processes. Elston said this could be intimidating at times, but the support and enthusiasm within the group helped to ease nerves and provide insight into what real life in the fashion world may look like.

“We all work in a studio together, so it’s really great to have that experience because that’s what it’s really like in the fashion industry when you’re a designer,” Elston said. “You’re constantly working in the studio with other people as a team.”

While some collections include pieces that are “ready-to-wear,” many student designs are more conceptual and based off of personal experiences, said Wendy Chan, a senior in the class. This holds true in her case. Chan designed her collection around her experience dealing with back pain and the physical limitations that it has imposed on her.

“I want to communicate how different parts of your spine can affect different parts of your body,” she said.

Mackenzie Stone had similar motivations in conceptualizing her collection, “Monsters Are Bred Not Born,” which is based on masculinity and how it pertains to gender violence. Stone used her experiences at SU and her knowledge of feminism and women’s rights to develop pieces that would help raise awareness on the issue.

“Much like how issues of masculinity manifest themselves physically on women via bruises or literal violence, the collection shows much of the same thing,” Stone said.

While her collection, along with many of the others, is designed for and modeled by women, Stone explained how some students offer a wider range of options. There is a gender-neutral collection, which accounts for the increasingly progressive understanding of how gender is experienced and understood in society. The variety of collections make the show worth coming to, she said.

“It’s kind of like a moving art show,” Stone said. “I think it’s worth everyone’s time. If not because they love fashion, then because they love art.”

Tickets can be purchased at Schine Box Office, and prices depend on seating and the time of the show. The show is taking place at 12:30 and 7:30 p.m.

Published on April 25, 2018 at 10:19 pm