The “#Halston: Student Design Challenge” takes place at 12 p.m. Wednesday at the Grunwald Gallery. Deb Christiansen, lecturer in the Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design, challenged one of her classes to embrace Halston’s aesthetic for this event.
“I wanted to make it an assignment for a class,” Christiansen said. “What’s really interesting is we’re in a third-semester fashion design course. You feel like they’ve learned a lot, and yet this semester is what we call pattern development — they haven’t learned draping yet.”
Most of Halston’s work involves draping, which students will not learn in-depth until subsequent semesters, Christiansen said.
“It’s become more of a challenge than I even imagined it would, to have them create something in five or six weeks,” Christiansen said.
She said some metalsmithing and jewelry students lent their talents to this challenge as well, drawing upon Halston and Elsa Peretti, a model turned jewelry designer from the same period, as their inspiration.
Senior Samantha Jones said she is taking a modern look at Halston’s designs in her halter dress. She said she took inspiration from one of the dresses in the collection and decided to change the shape and form for a contemporary edge.
“To make it modern, I kept it very form-fitting, kind of sexy — not that Halston’s wasn’t,” Jones said. “His was more flow because it was the ‘70s, everything was a bit more flowy whereas this is going to be a bit more fitted.”
Jones said she entered the project familiar with Halston’s work, though she said she did not know as much of his focus on draping. After finding what her inspiration would be, Jones said she did her research and compared Halston’s work patterns with today’s design teachings.
“For his hems, he would just turn up the hem and hand-stitch it. It was great hand-stitching, but now that’s not really finished,” Jones said. “They emphasize so much how seams need to be finished, but with Halston, who was this fabulous designer, most of his stuff wasn’t finished.”
Senior Allyson Pruitt, who is working on a full-length evening gown, said she incorporated aspects of Halston’s work that people her age would find interesting in a garment, such as an elegant open back.
Pruitt said what she found inspiring about Halston is how simple everything in his work seems to the viewer.
“He makes it seem very effortless, even though there is a lot of effort that goes into it,” Pruitt said. “The dresses are simple but still have a lot design incorporated into them that makes them beautiful and unique.”
The freedom within the world of fashion design is what Pruitt said she takes away from this experience.
“You don’t always have to follow the rules when constructing and cutting out,” Pruitt said. “Especially when working with knits, you’ve got a lot more stretch, you’ve got a lot more give. If you just pay attention to the body and the silhouette you’re trying to work with, you can break as many rules as you want.”
Christiansen said the complexity found within Halston’s seemingly simple designs as well as the lack of closures in his pieces is truly inspiring. She said the project would teach students not only technique with knit fabrics, but how to work within another’s aesthetic bounds.
“I want them to be able to learn about Halston, learn about that aesthetic, learn how complicated the simple is, understand how to use knits, but also understand how to incorporate somebody else’s design aesthetic into your own work,” Christiansen said. “You can still be inspired by that and still have it be your own.”
