Product Runway 2019
A Rochester City Center IIDA & AIA Collaborative Event.
Product Runway 2019 was Rochester, New York Chapters of AIA & IIDA's first event of its kind and was part of the Rochester Fashion Week 10th Anniversary. For this event, various design and architecture firms could sign up to participate in creating a one-of-a-kind outfit, fashioned out of interior finish materials. Each team received two Representatives, each representing a different manufacturer, to provide the materials for constructing the piece. Each team also received one Rochester building or landmark as their source of inspiration for their outfit. Each team had to provide their own model, a volunteer from that team, to walk at Rochester Fashion Week, and had about 7 months to conceptualize and construct their outfit for the show.
Team LaBella Associates
Rochester Building: The Metropolitan Building
Team Captain: Lindsay Davis
Team Members: Jessica Beavers, Robyn Hadfield, Michelle Coady, Anne Weis, Stacy Welch, Caitlin Keyes, & Stephanie Sartori (me).
Team Model: Robyn Hadfield.
Sponsors: Wolf Gordon & Bentley Mills
Representatives: Edna Czyz & Andy McLoughlin
The Building
The Metropolitan Building is one of Rochester, New York's tallest and most iconic buildings. It was completed in 1973 and is easily identified by its black windows and white "fins" that run its length, giving it a bold striped appearance. The base of the building flairs outward and the entry is accented by an arched sculptural awning. At night, the building takes on a new light, with color-shifting lighting that illuminates the Rochester skyline. The 26-floor skyscraper houses both commercial businesses and residential apartments an is centrally located downtown.
The Design Process
For the first submission for this event, each team participating created a poster depicting that teams' building or landmark, concept sketches of the proposed garment, proposed materials for the garment, and a short blurb about the design concept. For our design, our team vetted through several sketched ideas before deciding on our final iteration. We examined the form of the building and how to apply the strongest design principles of the structure to our garment to help give a clear link between fashion and architecture.
The Poster
Our first deliverable for the project was after 1 month of initial conceptualization. We were asked to create a poster that would illustrate our proposed garment through a brief description of our inspiration and concept, proposed finishes we would be using to create the garment, and sketches to present our idea. With this, the board of IIDA and AIA members could give constructive feedback to help push the design of the garments for a greater impact when presented at Fashion Week. For the poster, I created the 3 smaller pen and ink drawings of our model wearing our proposed garment and headpiece.
The Construction Phase
After critiques were given, we were able to start construction of our garment. With the help of Edna and Andy we were able to place orders for upholstery fabric, luxury vinyl tile, and unbacked carpet, but first, we needed to figure out how we would make it and how much material we would need. To do this, we used muslin and brown paper to help create a pattern from scratch, as well as a hoop-skirt form for the skirt and a vest to aid in building the peplum top for our ensemble. Pinning these to a mannequin that Anne was able to acquire, we were able to form a pattern and understanding for how our piece would be constructed. During construction of the garment, I helped on a lot of the front-end pattern-making and pattern placement, and was the primary team member on skirt construction as I was one of two team members who knew how to sew.
The Fashion Show
Finally after about 6 weeks of construction we completed our garment and complementary head piece and on October 18th, Robyn walked the catwalk in our Metropolitan dress at Rochester's Fashion Week 10th Anniversary show.
