The show will be a cultivation of Fashion Design III: Presentation & Analysis student’s hard work and ideas during the course of the year, and it will take place Thursday night.
Two senior designers labored over their last collections as IU students, each with a distinct style and vision but similar focus and ?determination.
It took them about three months to translate their initial ideas into high-fashion garments.
Maddie Hanley, a fifth-year senior in IU’s fashion design program, flipped through her sketchbook as she reviewed the inspiration she collected during a year abroad in China. Several swatches were tucked between the pages. Hanley said the ability to have and feel the fabric was essential even during the initial design stages.
Aiming for draped perfection in her garment, she meticulously pinned and marked a pattern she had worked on for more than an hour that day. It was early February, just a little more than two months before the anticipated runway show.
“That’s wild,” a fashion professor said as she walked by the vibrant green print resting on Hanley’s ?dress form.
A fusion of inspiration from post-World War II France and Japan, Hanley’s collection is what she described as a transformation tableau, beginning with a post-WWII France influence and easing into that of post-WWII Japan. Tailoring techniques reminiscent of legendary fashion designers Christian Dior and Charles James were visible in the silhouette of her French-inspired looks.
“It’s a very Dior thing to use menswear fabric and try to fit it to this feminine, sensual silhouette,” ?Hanley said.
In addition to her own designs, Hanley collaborated with fellow students from the School of Fine Arts to include other art forms in her runway show. Flower bouquets crafted from lotus pods, gourds, paint, resin and brass will be carried down the runway by her models.
Artists Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama and author Haruki Murakami were among the other sources of inspiration Hanley utilized throughout her creative process.
“I really do try to have some sort of conceptual link throughout all of my things,” Hanley said of her collection and overall strategy as a designer.
Following the old saying ‘practice makes perfect,’ Hanley said refining her sewing skills has come with time. Her construction skills improved drastically this year, but she claims her most prized skills lie elsewhere.
“I’m definitely not the best seamstress in there,” she said. “But I’m also really strong on Illustrator, and that’s a whole other facet for technical ?design.”
A design student one year ahead of Hanley recommended she learn Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Hanley took the advice to heart and signed up to take graphic design. Her technical skills later proved to put her a step ahead of others as she searched for internship opportunities.
Her Asian-influenced looks came largely from the time she spent abroad as a student in IU’s Chinese Flagship program. Spending both a semester in Shanghai and Nanjing, Hanley had the chance to work as an intern at Christian Dior, where she learned the ins and outs of high fashion and translated her time there into part of the inspiration for her ?collection.
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While Hanley worked diligently with her fabric that she bartered for from the Shanghai Fabric Market, fellow classmate Rebecca Sales found herself inspired by the 1960s French Riviera and her time spent abroad in Florence, Italy.
“It’s a resort collection that has that vintage, nostalgic feel, but I’m updating it with fun colors, prints and different silhouettes,” Sales said of her collection. “It definitely has a classic, sophisticated feeling but is still fun.”
The senior fashion design major and Los Angeles native started her career as a freshman in high school, where she tested the waters with an introductory fashion design class at the nearby Otis College of Art and Design. She immediately caught the fashion bug thereafter.
Sales, a Retail Studies Organization officer and IU Fashion Show director, defined her aesthetic as timeless and straying away from trends. She instead relished in pieces that are simple and elegant. Carolina Herrera, Alberta Ferretti and Ralph Lauren are all go-to designers Sales referred to for inspiration.
Much of the fabric Sales incorporated into her collection came from Ratti Textiles, where she had an internship the summer after her sophomore year.
Her former boss had extra fabric she allowed Sales to sift through and buy inexpensively. Sales also mentioned many designers would be collaborating with metalsmithing students, who would design jewelry pieces for the show.
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As Hanley and Sales moved through the process of both their collections and long-term development as students and designers, they attributed much of their success and inspiration to their teacher, Deborah Christiansen.
“As far as instructors go, Deb Christiansen is amazing,” Hanley said. “She’s brilliant. She’s a Ph.D. She’s a really encouraging, great person.”
One of the biggest takeaways Hanley has gained from Dr. Deb, as many students call her, is the notion to continually push forward and reach for more. If a student sketches a couture design, Christiansen expects them to sew it in a couture manner, minutia and all, just as well as they sketched it. Couture designs are typically more intricate in their style and design, involving more attention to detail than a regular garment.
Sales cited Christiansen as one of the main forces behind her motivation to continue pressing forward in her journey as a designer.
“So many times I was sad and frustrated, ready to give up,” Sales said of her class projects. “We had to do this shirt on overlock machines, which are really complicated to thread. I was crying in my room and super down, and she said, ‘No, Rebecca, it’s going to be fine!’ And I ended up doing pretty well on that project.”
Equally rewarding is the opportunity for instructors to watch their pupils grow and develop. Christiansen reflected on the growth of both designers, with the fashion show as the home stretch for both of their journeys in the program.
“She’s always given attention to detail,” Christiansen said of Sales. “She’s always had interesting design ideas, but I think that she developed immensely after being abroad. I think she’s gotten better at problem solving. It just takes time. You just have to have done it. You have to have had the problems to learn from.”
An essential component in achieving success as a designer is the balance between creative and technical design skills, Christiansen explained. That proved to be an asset that put Hanley a step ahead of several other young designers in the field.
“She understood the bigger picture in those first two semesters,” Christiansen said.
Not only does the fashion design program leave students with strong points of view and design skills but also the knowledge and lingo necessary to navigate the fashion world in both the design and business realms.
“You need to be able to talk the talk and walk the walk,” Christiansen said.
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By the end of March, the designs started to come to fruition, almost ready for the runway. With a little more than a week left before the final show, Hanley and Sales both appeared to be on top of their game.
Most of their basic assembly was done, leaving the nitty-gritty details and punctiliousness for the remainder of their timeline. Focus and dedication were a must, and Hanley said she was in the studio for 10 hours the previous day.
During this week, models routinely came in for fittings, giving the designers a feel for how exactly their looks would transfer from the dress form to the real deal.
Hanley, pinning the model into her pink silk dress, carefully attached strips of fabric she prepared just before her model arrived. Hanley pinned parts of the bust to the garment and then stepped back. She repeated this process several times until the fabric laid exactly where she wanted it.
“Does that look even to you?” she said.
Two of Hanley’s other looks were resting on dress forms on either side of the fitting room. The vibrant green fabric that was previously in pieces and patterns was now stitched into a full garment, the draping just as Hanley planned.
While she pinned her model into the third garment of her collection, Sales worked on a draped pattern on her mannequin. After its completion, she would transform it into the actual ?garment. With such little time before the show, she was at ease with her ?progress.
A few days later, Sales’ model arrived mid-afternoon at the studio classroom for Sales to refine the final look of her collection. Sales tailored the light, dainty fabric of the long, white silk organza matelassé coat and flowing white pants. Sales pinned where necessary and switched from model to notebook to jot down numbers for adjustments that needed to be made.
“I was so nervous for the pants,” Sales admitted. “I had so many mock-ups and fittings.”
With the pressure growing as the remaining weeks dwindled, the workplace atmosphere wasn’t that of a dramatic, over-the-top scene one might imagine from Project Runway. Classmates consider each other family, and the amount of support in the room is overwhelming, Sales said.
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Early April arrived, and during the Monday of what the designers dubbed “Fashion Week,” Hanley and Sales finished last-minute details, preparing both physically and mentally for the show just hours away. Hanley had only two hems left to complete, and Sales spent the majority of her time finalizing designs at her house.
Throughout the semester, both designers proved they possess a bag of tricks that go beyond a needle and thread. As both Sales and Hanley rapidly approach their ventures into the real world of fashion, they both delve into a future unknown but are equipped with the confidence and ambition that will take them where they ?want to go.
Hanley hopes to go on to work in women’s athletic wear, while Sales says she plans to find a designer or brand she is passionate about, preferably in women’s wear or ready-to-wear, and work her way up the ?totem pole.
“Don’t be intimidated,” Sales said, advising future fashion design students. “Try to gain as much experience as possible from the get-go. Take every opportunity that comes your way, and don’t be afraid to chase your dreams.”
