Fashion Design Students Design from Home
Santa Monica College's (SMC) yearly fashion show, "La Mode," will be held online this year as a result of COVID-19. When the pandemic hit the US in March, the fashion department closed immediately on March 14, according to Professor Lorrie Ivas.
“We thought we would be able to come back and that this would only be a couple of weeks,” Ivas said, explaining that most of the design students did not grab any fabrics or equipment. According to Ivas, professor Jan Ardell managed to gather some of the reuse tents that were collected after Coachella Music Festical in 2019 and given to SMC. Student Tsyoshi Ichikawa needed these to finish his sustainable collection and Ardell left them in the back patio by the fashion building so he could grab them.
Every year, the design students create collections that are presented at the yearly La Mode fashion show. Most of the students have had to figure out new solutions in order to finish their collections without the regular equipment that is provided in the production room at SMC.
Design student Rocky Avalos lives at home with a lot of family, and the only place she can work on her designs is in the dining room. She has a sewing machine, but it doesn’t measure up to the industrial machines that are provided at SMC. “Some of my pieces are made with rugs and I was scared to use my home sewing machine for it,” Avalos said.
Avalos’s collection is inspired by the 1950/60s American housewife, who uses what is available to her to create her own outfits. “One of the outfits is made all of curtain material that I got at a discount store,” she says.
“I really grew to love my instructors being there with me and kind of walking me through… I was really scared to not have that,” said Avalos. She has been at SMC for two years and also has a bachelor’s degree in art from UCLA.
The design students were originally required to create three looks but had the criteria altered to two looks after classes turned remote.
Swedish design student Jennifer Hult was inspired by the midsummer-sky in her home country. “Sunset and sunrise collide together so the sky gets filled with all of these pretty colors”, she said. She chose to use the color palette of blue, purple and pink that is reflected in the sky for her collection.
Hult has not had any issues with finishing her collection; however, she does feel like online classes have been a challenge because getting help from the instructor is not as easy on Zoom. “Something I’ve noticed that I miss the most is just having this creative environment that I used to share with my classmates, motivating and inspiring each other," Hult said.
Alexander Nicholas is in his third year as a design student at SMC. His interest in fashion began when he was a sophomore in high school.
“After analyzing all my style changes and how long I had been involved with clothing, it just connected that I should do something in regard to design,” Nicholas said.
Nicholas always used his home sewing machine before he started using the industrial machines at SMC. However, when classes transferred online, he explained he was a little worried about lowering the quality of the clothes he was producing. “Having none of that with me here at home is really disappointing,” said Nicholas.
Nicholas’s focus is on producing good, quality items which he aims to show in his collection, “Nicholas Technologies." “It is basically integrating a technology idea into the clothing," Nicholas explained.
He has designed a denim jacket with a functioning computer attached to the back, as well as an accessory pendant made out of a CPU processor. In addition to this, Nicholas has created two pairs of high-quality pants, with partially reused material.
Though originally planned for June 16, the La Mode fashion show has been rescheduled to June 25. There will be a live viewing party with industry judges, during which the students will show pre-recorded presentations of their collections. The winners will be announced later that day and the presentations will be available to the public on the fashion department website.
