FIDM's Grand Debut
It was an evening of tomorrow’s design today at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising’s Debut 2005 show on Feb. 27. Designers, FIDM graduates, instructors and fashion industry notables filled the cavernous Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif., to get a glimpse of FIDM students’ fashions, costumes and furniture designs.
Cocktail hour included an opportunity to review this year’s “Chairing Styles” work, in which fashion design students paired with interior design students to create chairs with coordinating gowns. This year’s crop used the bold prints from the Marimekko collection for Pottery Barn.
Hollywood’s honorary mayor, Johnny Grant, served as emcee for the evening, which began with a runway show featuring designs from the school’s film and television costume design graduates for archetypal characters such as “California Dream Girl” (designed by Jessica DiMartino) and “Mesa Cowgirl” (designed by Michelle Liu). The designs were created at the request of the California Market Center, which included the looks in its Los Angeles Fashion Week runway show last October.
The theater costume design grads took on “Annie Get Your Gun,” designing costumes for the classic Western-themed musical.
Among the standout looks of the advanced fashion design program were Jeong Park’s highly constructed designs, inspired by 18th century furniture; Queyen Ha’s menswear, inspired by the Duke of Windsor and the Jazz Age; Elias Luna’s Jean Harlow-inspired satins and tweeds; Yuki Mori’s childrenswear, inspired by Japan’s Harajuku girls; and Season Hall’s spring-hued retro collection, embellished with hand-painted ladybugs. And Jonathan Haggerty’s eveningwear collection boasted thousands of Swarovski crystals that twinkled in the light of the two large crystal chandeliers that flanked the runway.
—Alison A. Nieder
