We Put on a Fashion Show!

            Walking backstage at the first-annual FADs fashion show, it felt as though one was entering a venue such as New York Fashion Week. On one side of the room, models sat perfectly in a row – some speaking to each other in exotic European languages – their figures growing even taller due to their perfect posture.  Hairstylists and makeup artists stood behind them, pulling their hair into tight buns and livening their faces with shimmery blush, thick eyeliner and mauve lipstick. An atmosphere of controlled chaos rapidly formed as students dressed in head-to-toe black rushed between the rolling racks that lined the walls, carefully inspecting every student-designed garment. As the show time approached, garments were plucked from their hangers and furiously steamed, and models slipped into their black pumps in order to practice their walks on the runway. The chatter backstage dropped to a hush as the audience began filing into their seats, a signal which cued the models to begin changing, a team of assistants hovering at every angle to help them into their garments. As remixed French pop began filtering through the speakers, the models began to strut down the runway in the order of the Polariods that dotted the lineup board.

            Immediately one designer stood out from the rest, his designs dominating the show’s lineup. Lung Ung, a student studying fashion design within VPA, created a collection reminiscent of Alexander McQueen’s theatrical, yet elegantly tailored, designs. When speaking to him he described being inspired by asylums. His stiff garments were drawn from the constricting silhouettes of straight jackets. When speaking about his originally designed and hand-dyed textiles, which displayed random ink-drip patterns, he described them as being reminiscent of the

“vision and psychological testing used to evaluate patients in which they would be tested to see if they were able to identify images within the random patterns.”