It was just a sliver of the Big Apple, but that’s all it took to whet the appetites of a handful of budding fashion designers.
The Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Fashion Design and Merchandising participated for the first time in New York City’s Fashion Week this month.
Seven VCU student designers, all 2013 graduates, showed off their collections Sept. 9 at Manhattan’s Alger House during an invitation-only event that included representatives from the fashion industry and industry associations, plus VCU alumni, advisory board members and more.
There are four major Fashion Weeks held around the world — in New York, London, Paris and Milan, Italy — with New York kicking off the circuit.
“Everyone was in awe that we were there, that we could pull this off, and that the clothing that the students presented was just beautiful,” said Donna Reamy, interim chair and associate professor of fashion design and merchandising. “We set a goal for ourselves to make more of a presence in New York City, (and) our show just looked fantastic.” Associate fashion design professor Kristin Caskey said 19 senior fashion students competed during the academic year to go to Fashion Week. Five were chosen: Sarah Brown, Jennifer Gray, Monisha Jenkins, Melissa Jiannalone and Krystal Vaquerano.
One student, Rabab Abdullah, from the university’s sister program in Qatar, also traveled to New York, as well as Grace Hazelgrove, a 2013 graduate and the first VCU recipient of the Council of Fashion Designers of America Plus certification.
“It was quite an opportunity,” said Brown, who is from Sterling. “We always wished we’d be able to do that.”
Brown’s maternity collection featured convertible clothing that could be worn during pregnancy and after. Her collection, called Preg-Knits, is made mostly from 100 percent organic cotton.
Brown said she opted to sit in the audience during the New York show as models walked the runway wearing her clothes.
“You got to hear the oohs and aahs,” she said. “It was nice to hear that everyone liked (the collections.)”
The point of going to New York, Reamy said, was to expose VCU’s talented students to the world, and vice versa, and provide the students with industry connections.
Students had to create beautiful clothing and be ready with polished portfolios, business cards and other marketing materials.
The trip was a costly venture, Reamy said, and everything was planned from Richmond. They had to find and pay for a venue in New York to host the show, as well as pay for transportation and lodging for everyone involved. They hired 12 local models and two hair and makeup professionals to accompany them.
Reamy said faculty will evaluate the trip, but overall, “I think it’s worthwhile for us to do it.”
The student designers “really networked and connected with a lot of people,” she said, which, ultimately, was the goal of taking students to the epicenter of Fashion Week in the United States.
She added, “I think it did so much more than that.”
For Jenkins, a Chesapeake native, the trip to New York was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that sparked a goal — return to Fashion Week but as an established designer under a large label.
“I’ve wanted to be a designer since I was 12,” she said, so going to New York during Fashion Week, “I feel one step closer to it.”
Her collection features women’s sportswear, including a waterproof coat.
“It was awesome to have my clothes shown,” she said, adding that the icing on the cake was hearing glowing comments from other members of the audience as models in her clothing walked down the runway.
“It was a surreal feeling.”
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