Project Red Dress Hits the Runway this Friday
Other than the perfunctory post-holiday shopping sales, Seattle's fashion community pretty much goes in hibernation in January and February—with the exception of the second annual Project Red Dress fashion competition. The Seattle chapter of Fashion Group International is brightening up our fierce-less February with the largest student fashion design contest to hit Seattle, and not a minute too soon for those interested in fashion beyond North Face fleece.
Cascading bolts of silk chiffon, taffeta, and cashmere in various hues of ruby reds pour over the tables in the fashion department at International Academy of Design and Technology as students busily prepare for Project Red Dress. Each designer is competing for a $3,000 scholarship, a display in Macy's storefront window and various media coverage.
The competition is selective and intense. Only two students are picked from each of Washington State's certified fashion institutions: Art Institute of Seattle, International Academy of Design and Technology, New York Fashion Academy, Seattle Central Community College, and Seattle Pacific University. Based on their sketched design submission, students must construct a red gown on the IADT campus within 16 hours, and exhibit their final piece on runway models at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Friday, February 13 (buy tickets here). Project Runway alum favorite and FIDM instructor, Nick Verreos, and four other judges representing various fields of the fashion industry will select the winner based on creativity and construction.
"I expect to see over-the-top creative designs as well as elegant, sellable ones. I am more of a fan for the over-the-top creations, as long as it looks right and is constructed impeccably. I will be looking for creativity, but also if there's a sense that the student is doing their research--following trends, like seeing what the Paris haute couture designers just showed in Paris Fashion Week," says Nick Verreos. Sure, you won't see Seattle mainstream consumers pounding the pavement in a Dior double wire-hooped skirt, but local designers are watching and emulating the themes coming from official and corresponding members of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. They are also inspired by other fashion powerhouses, like Tokyo and LA/West Coast, but what ultimately shapes Seattle's fashion perspective are the issues that affect our community.
"Fashion from the Emerald City is vibrant, eclectic, and is very much at the pulse of what's hot," says Verreos.
He is definitely right about the "eclectic" part. Seattle's demographic phenomenon of "transplant" residents inspires a miscellaneous and complex range of values and ideas, which makes our fashion perspective difficult to identify and impossible to categorize. Our contribution to the greater fashion community is our wealth of young, grass-rootsy designers, representing a unique perspective that is innovative and whimsical.
Seattle is one of the most socially conscientious fashion communities in the world, as demonstrated in our "plentiful upstart boutiques" and the green designer movement—Seattle was the first to host the first Green Fashion Week on the West Coast in 2007, as well as Eco Lavish and the Fashion Ethic "Eco Chic" Show. And in true Seattle form, Project Red Dress is also supporting a cause. A portion of the proceeds will go to sponsor the American Heart Association's Go Red initiative and will provide AHA with a platform to educate Seattleites on cardiovascular disease.
About 80 years ago Elizabeth Arden and Eleanor Roosevelt founded Fashion Group International as a non-profit organization to support women in leadership positions in the fashion industry. Today it is a thriving global organization of over 5,000 members, open to both men and women. And here in Seattle, its mission hasn't changed much.
Karly Orr
"Last year's winner, Karly Orr from NYFA, is really starting to circulate the greater fashion scene and is making a name for herself." Orr is also the winner of Seattle Magazine's Seamless in Seattle competition and her collection will soon be featured in Pulp Lab. "With Project Red Dress we want to support and highlight as many local fashion and beauty designers, and continue networking, mentoring, and learning from each other."
