It is probably the first and last time you will see chairs work the runway.
The Institute for Design and Technology South Dakota (IDTSD) held their annual student portfolio runway event, teaming up with Project Runway finalist Korto Momolu for the show’s grand finale.
The doors opened early for attendees to peruse bulletin boards covered in photos, swatch selections and sketches previewing the runway looks. IDTSD instructs both fashion and interior designers.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Kocher
Hence “Form + Fashion Meets Function.”
Hence chairs on the runway.
The show opened with a textile design portfolio put out by the school’s owner and designer for the Dakota-made line LENZANITA, Anita Kealey, and titled “Windows of the World.”
“I really wanted to embrace our own diversity in our own city,” Kealey said of the inspiration for her collection’s name. Prints ranged from subtle beiges to loud, modern, geometric blues.
The student show also embraced textiles, but in a very different way: by using upholstery fabrics.
“Every student had to work with someone else’s vision,” Kealey said. For the fashion students, this meant collaborating with interior design students to create a garment out of the same Jonathan Adler fabric chosen for a seat cover. The show, then, involved multiple designers working around the three Fs: form, fashion, function.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Kocher
It was, above anything else, incredibly unique. As a model moved down the runway, a chair was placed at the end. The model then posed with the chair to showcase the cohesive elements between the two designs. The Adler patterns were almost all vibrant prints with striking patterns, cut into modern, business-casual shapes. Although many students worked on both the chairs and the garments, the show maintained consistency through similar textile incorporation in the form of color-blocking: in a panel down the front, across bags, and, largely, as a wide swath of hem.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Kocher
The showstopper, however, came in the partner IDTSD was able to secure for the last collection of the night: Momolu’s UNCHAINED. Simultaneously a high-powered fashion and a political statement, UNCHAINED used 30 garments to make a statement on human trafficking.
Momolu’s usual aesthetic featuring bold, large prints was tabled for a monochromatic trio of blacks, reds and whites. The palette is clean and understated, but the designs are anything but. Cohesion and tension are created by dramatic, almost severe asymmetrical cuts and drapes.
These overstated lines are punctuated by the occasional turtleneck, pulled up to cover their nose and mouth. Four pieces will go by before a woman walks down with in a deep, velvety black, with a deep V back and only her eyes peeping over the collar. Four more models will walk past before a woman whose arms are strapped down by fabric strips makes an appearance. Four more will go by before the chain accents will come out.
Momolu said the unexpected nature of these designs is representative of human trafficking as a whole.
“You can look great and normal, but there’s something about you that’s not,” Momolu said after the show.
Momolu shares the name of her collection with the organization she works with, a nonprofit dedicated to education and awareness as the tools to end human trafficking.
“We have to keep our eyes open and be each others’ keepers,” Momolu said. “We have to take care of each other.”
After a statement like that, you might have to sit down. Fortunately, there are a few fabulous chairs around.
