A fur-free fashion design contest? Well that's easy, you might say: Just use faux fur. But fashion designers who submitted works in the ninth annual Cool vs. Cruel fashion design competition weren't allowed to use fake fur in their submissions, pushing them to new levels of creativity.
With her design, Melanie Witt, of Beaverton, has been chosen as one of the finalists in the national competition, which is sponsored by The Humane Society of the United States and the The Art Institutes.
Witt, 29, recently graduated from The Art Institute of Seattle's fashion design program. She moved to Beaverton about a month ago, and is seeking a job in the fashion industry.
Witt is one of more than 20 students from The Art Institutes system of schools nationwide who have been selected to represent their schools as finalists.
The Cool vs. Cruel competition asks fashion students at The Art Institutes schools to reinterpret and replace animal fur on runway designs by Diane von Furstenberg, Tom Ford, Derek Lam or Moncler.
And this year, for the first time since the competition started in 2005, contestants were banned from using faux fur in their designs, encouraging entrants to expand their material choices.
A big animal lover, Witt jumped at the chance to participate in the competition. She used a red fur dress from Derek Lam as inspiration.
Witt's design features vinyl upholstery and paint swatches on a black dress. Witt said she's proud of her creation, and likes that it doesn't emulate the feel of fur.
"I was really happy with it, because it was something I had never done," she said. "It was kind of experimental, because I didn't know what it was going to look like when I finished it. It was interesting to see what the material could do."
The contest emphasizes the fact that animal-friendly designs can be just as beautiful as their fur counterparts, Witt said.
The national grand-prize winner of the contest will receive a cash prize and an expense-paid, week-long internship in New York City with one of the designers from the panel of judges.
Check out Witt's competition on The Humane Society's Fur-Free Campaign Facebook page. For more information about the competition and to see the original runway looks, visit humanesociety.org. To see Witt's portfolio, visit melchristine.com.
-- Anna Marum
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