Photos by Ava Kitzi

Stephens College is set to host the 82nd annual The Collections fashion show in April, which highlights student designs and garments under a single theme. While the designers’ garment collections are at the forefront, behind them is a robust team of faculty, staff and students that keep the show running.

Monica McMurry, the former dean of the School of Design for Stephens and current chair of the fashion show, says the show is a focal point toward which students hone their craft; they often invest more than a semester’s worth of work into the final product. McMurry says debates over color palette, themes and more can be heated, but she takes it as involvement and passion from her students.

For this year’s installment, the team chose “Interwoven” as a central theme.

“The show is about how every single thing is connected to the next,” McMurry says. From the soil that grows cotton and how workers are treated to how garments are recycled or reused, students were encouraged to create their collections with this theme in mind. “It’s the interwoven nature of how we’re all connected,” she says. “There is a shared humanity in how we dress.

Sustainability

Stephens senior Caitlyn Arnold’s moodboards and work area in the fashion lab are full of pastel colors, beach photos and frilly fabrics. Rooted in the style of her collection is a strong sense of who might be buying the clothing she designs.

A beach-loving, East Coast woman might take a dip in the ocean or hit the town in Arnold’s floral designs. What differentiates these garments from similar ones already on the market is Arnold’s commitment to sustainability and upcycling. Throughout her collection are numerous upcycled handkerchiefs and old sheets that she has refurbished and stitched into her modern designs.

“It started as a fun hobby,” Arnold says, regarding her collection of vintage handkerchiefs she’s utilized as patches for her garments. “I really love upcycling different materials … grabbing inspiration from that and putting that into my garments.”

Sustainable fashion is at the core of the curriculum at Stephens, with a focus on the materials that make up the clothing students create. For Arnold, this was a key part of her perspective while creating her senior collection. “There’s already so much stuff in the world,” she says. “We might as well use what we have.

Weaving Passions

Senior Lena Hunziker admits she was initially a bit intimidated by the assignment to create her fashion collection. Stephens gives students a free runway to be as creative as they want, which seemed like a lot of open space to narrow down to.

The answer for Hunziker came down to the combination of her two passions: fashion and volleyball.

As a volleyball player for Stephens, originally from Sweden, Hunziker is familiar with the gameday styles taking over the fashion world. She wanted to include the high-glamor fashion looks of the entrance tunnel before a game and pay special attention to taller women in her designs. Hunziker’s designs include typically masculine looks, like blazers, vests and buttondown shirts with more feminine tailoring and asymmetrical designs.

Like many of her peers, Hunziker’s collection came from weaving together her personal interests and background. This means the group of collections being shown in the upcoming fashion show vary widely.

“(All the collections) are very different, so we knew it was going to be hard,” Hunziker says about choosing a central theme. “But now we have a (theme) that includes all of us.”

Heritage and Clothing

Senior Arin-Christina Hawk focused on her own heritage for her collection, taking inspiration from Chicago and the 70s jazz scene for her fabrics, colors and designs.

“I feel like a lot of Black Americans can definitely relate to the idea that we don’t necessarily have the same cultural heritage or connection that European families have because of slavery,” Hawk says. “Not knowing our connection to Africa, a lot of what my family has in terms of culture and what we have loved, cherished and passed on is in music.”

Hawk says that looking through family photos was enough to get her started on the idea for her collection. She was naturally drawn to a specific feel with a decisive, rich color scheme. The goal of her collection was to cater to the “modern dandy,” as she calls it. Business casual but with flare and vibrancy — artists could wear the same outfit to the office as they could to perform at a jazz club.

“I wanted it to feel like jazz, a sense of belonging,” Hawk says.

Past and Future Successes

The number five holds a lot of significance to senior Sofia Schaefer Ramos: it’s how many points a star has (her mom has always called Schaefer Ramos her “little star”), it’s the number of people in her family and it’s the number of times Brazil has won the World Cup. Her collection, Penta, which means five in Portuguese, is a collection of all of these things.

Schaefer Ramos collected old jerseys and sportswear to create high-end streetwear, inspired by soccer and her memories of growing up in Brazil. From going to the soccer stadium with her grandfather to now being a goalie for Stephens’ team, Schaefer Ramos grew up surrounded by soccer. She says bringing that to her senior collection was the obvious thing to do. Her collection primarily utilizes upcycled denim and jerseys, along with hand-beading and embroidery to make the streetwear looks for both men and women.

One of the more exciting parts for Schaefer Ramos was the trend forecasting that came along with creating her collection. Students perform market research to find holes in the current industry; Schaefer Ramos says it was fulfilling to see major brands like Nike producing designs similar to hers months after she started creating. This helped her feel confident about her future success upon graduation in the spring.

“It’s really cool to see that you’re right on track with the zeitgeist,” Schaefer Ramos says. “For me, (inspiration) comes from what’s the forecast and what direction (the market is going). It’s not just physical pieces; it’s more the feeling people are going toward in the next few years, and that inspires me a lot as well.”

See the completed pieces at the Stephens College fashion show April 25 at 2, 4:30 or 7 p.m. in the Windsor Auditorium or visit thecollectionsfashionshow.com.