The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Andrew McLean

On Karen Bakke's cue, students at the third annual Fashion Communications Fashion Show put the finishing touches on styling their hair and polishing their makeup.

"Let the wild rumpus begin!" said the associate fashion design professor and co-founder of the Fashion and Beauty Communication Milestone.

Models ran to line up at the door as the show, entitled "The Revolution is Now!: Media in a time of utter transformation expressed through fashion," kicked off at the Newhouse 1 lobby, in front of a packed audience Friday night.

Wearing crumpled newspaper as their headdresses, even the models' hair communicated with the audience. Each piece of jewelry, which was provided by senior fashion design major Jamie Gulbrandsen, had its own special look that was supposed to tell her personal stories.

"Everything is one of a kind and special, and every piece has a story attached to it," said Gulbrandsen. "I like to think the stories are heard when people wear the jewelry."

Sponsored by Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and College of Visual and Performing Arts' Fashion Communications Milestone, the show was produced by VPA's fashion design program at SU. The Milestone program is a concentration curriculum that allows students to focus on fashion and beauty as the means of communication.

The overarching theme of the show was more of change than communicating.

"The media is truly in a state of revolution," said Carla Lloyd, associate dean for creative and scholarly activity at Newhouse and co-founder of the Fashion and Beauty Communications Milestone. "The fashion show will explore this major transformation."

The show started with samples from the private collection of Jeffrey Mayer, an associate professor of fashion design and one of the show's organizers. Mayer presented six vintage looks, including "The New Look," a style that revolutionized fashion in the 1950s. The short go-go dress that was important in the social revolution of the 1960s was also featured in the show.

Then the freshmen fashion design majors showed off their sculptural class projects, which are architecturally designed clothing created to resemble something other than clothing.

Laura Renfro, a freshman fashion design major, created a compelling design that includes stripes of painted muslin fabric wrapped around the model's body. Parts of the fabric projected out, giving the impression of sparks. The whole outfit was meant to resemble fireworks. When Renfro's model hit the runway, the audience ooh-ed and ah-ed as lights on her piece flashed.

Continued...

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