Runway 3.0 was held May 1st, and showcased the work of student designers at Buffalo State University, Buff State alumni, and local designers. Runway, as anyone involved in the industry knows, is time consuming and laborious work, often rife with drama and with ample opportunity for mistakes. At the same time, as any fashion designer will tell you, it is often the physical representation of their hopes and dreams for a given collection.
We had the honor to work with a pair of Buffalo State University students who presented their work at Runway 3.0. These students, Brittany Chonka and Melissa Marchand, interned with us over the last year, courtesy of Professor Elaine Polvinen. They presented their work both on the physical Runway 3.0 catwalk as well as on our virtual version of their catwalk in our Virtual Runway™ product. The video of their virtual work was shown on a large screen behind their physical world runway models. We were invited to attend as honored guests, so we have imagery from both the preparation for their shows, as wella s fromt he actual runway.
Prepping for a show for an apparel brand starts almost as soon as the last model has whisked off the runway and the designer taken her bow. Inspiration is sought, muses may be applied to, and the work of creating a fully fledged runway production starts. In the physical world, after all the sketching is done, production starts on the runway samples, models are signed, hair and makeup designed and all of the machinery of a fully fledged production goes into motion.
Our interns came out to visit and spend a week finishing their physical collection. This is Missy, modeling Britt’s finale garment, while Britt finalizes the placement of her lighting:
Missy modeling another of Britt’s pieces. It was not as cold as it looked.
One of Missy’s pieces, modeled by of course, Missy. The rhinestones were in fact, as much of a pain to apply as you might think, since they are backed with a thermoformable adhesive that requires hand application. In the factory, of course, they’d have a trim setup and be applied in one pass, but fr the sample, we used a prototyping technique. Missy did a great job!
and last, the set for the interns’ Virtual Runway™ set in Fashionable Grid™:
Once the physical prototypes were done and turned in for grading, we finished the virtual apparel, and designed the models from the tips of their toes to the tips of their hair. We’ll show that process tomorrow.
We are currently accepting applications for our Summer internship program. We have space for 5 more students. To apply, please send email to admin at fashionresearchinstitute.com.
