San Francisco Design School Grads Star at NY Fashion Week

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Parent Category: Expos and Conventions

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 11 September 2009 17:18

Written by T. Terry Maloney

For the sixth consecutive year the talented student-designers of San Francisco's Academy of Art University will invade the land of FIT and Parsons when they present the school's Spring 2010 collections in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week's Main Tent in Bryant Park.

On Saturday, September 12 at 3pm, it will be standing room only as seven AAU designers will present their womenswear collections from the Fashion, Textile and Knitwear Design programs.

"These young designers have an amazing opportunity to be part of New York Fashion Week," said Dr. Elisa Stephens, AAU president. "We view this show as the University's commitment to help launch the careers of our graduates," he declared.
 
The seven designers are:

California native Amanda Cleary, MFA Fashion Design with an undergraduate degree in graphic design. She has interned for Elie Tahari and Verrieres & Sako. Ms. Cleary said she used packaging design as inspiration for her collection. She plans ro move to London or New York to pursue her career. We trust she will see the light and relocate to the Fashion Capitalm of the World: Manhattan!

Sawanya Jonthepmala, MFA Fashion and Textile Design, is a native of Thailand. "For my silhouette, I was inspired by the orgami-like details of Krathong, which are small boats made out of banana leaves," she said. The traditional glass mosacis from Thai Bhuddist temples inspired her textile designs.

South Carolina native Brittney Major, MFA Fashion Design, is a self-desribed "prep" and uses "unconventional preppy" as her inspiration, During the summer of 2008, Ms. Major was an intern for Zac Posen. She is pursuing a career in pattern-making and technical design.

Jin Pan was born and rasied in China. "My collection was inspired by Anna Fidler's paintings of abstract landscapes. mythical happenings and unseen energy," she said. Ms. Pan interned wih Anna Sui as a patternmaker in 2008 and will work on costume designs for the Hua Yi performing Group this fall.

A native of Sofia, Bulgaria, Marina Nikolaeva Popsaka, MFA Fashion and Knitwear Design, is the daughter of a professor in textile and fashion design. "I grew up surrounded by art and fabric," she said. "For my collection I was inspired by nature, humanity and light, as well as the chaos of color and texture," said Ms.Popska.

Kara Sennett, MFA Fashion Design, was raised on U.S. military bases in Germany, with summers spent in Delaware. "David Hockeny's painting beverly Hills Housewife was my inspiration for my wool and vinyl collection depicting the Mad Men era of the 1960s," she said.

Manila-born Richelle Valenzuela, MFA Fashion Design, has lived in San Francisco since he was 14. "The structure of the gem-cuttin diagram and the facets of the gem, not the gliiter amd glitz, inspired my collection,' he said.

Celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2009, Academy of Art University is the largest accredited private art and design school in the U.S. with over 13,000 students, including over 2,000 fashion students, The School of Fashion houses 10 areas of specialization: Fashion Design, Textile Design, Technical Design, Knitwear Design, Accessory Design, Costume Design, Fashion Illustration, Fashion Journalism, Fashion Merchandising and Visual Merchandising,

Gladys Perint Palmer, a working journalist and illustrator, is AAU's Executive Director of Fashion.

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