Art of Contrast fashion show leaves the borders behind

A model looks out to the audience while walking across the stage during the Art of Contrast Fashion Show in the Schwartz Center Friday, Oct. 10, 2014.

A model looks out to the audience while walking across the stage during the Art of Contrast Fashion Show in the Schwartz Center Friday, Oct. 10, 2014.

Felicia Ssempala

Student designers exhibited their creations at the Fashion Student Organization’s sold-out Art of Contrast fashion show Friday night in the Michael Schwartz Center auditorium.

The Art of Contrast, FSO’s annual fall fashion show, included submissions from designers as well as stylists with a varied mix of solo garments and collections.

“Without Borders” was the theme of the show.

“Students were allowed to pick one of the study away programs that the fashion school offers—New York, Hong Kong, Florence and Paris—as their inspiration,” said Jessica Ballas, senior fashion merchandising major and FSO President.

The show featured 27 designers, 45 stylists and 61 models—the largest number of participants to date. The garments and models were judged by Catherine Amoroso Leslie, associate professor and graduate studies coordinator of the School of Fashion Design and Merchandising; Alison Rossi, a graduate student in the Master of Fashion program; and Brittany Mizelle, former president of FSO and former senior co-producer of The Fashion School’s Annual Fashion Show.

Awards were given to the top designer, stylist, collection and model.

“The three main things we were looking for were creativity, originality, relationship to the city and inspiration from the city,” Leslie said.

First time participant Kayla Seymour, a freshman pre-fashion design major, won top designer for her cathedral inspired dress.

“My inspiration was the cathedral in Florence, Italy, and I made a lot of chains, and I used gold shimmer to be cohesive with the cathedral and Florence,” Seymour said.

Claire Zielinski, freshmen fashion merchandising major, won top stylist; RaShaan Arnold, a freshman pre-fashion design and merchandising major, won top model; and Chiann Demus, a junior fashion merchandising major, won top collection but was not there to accept her award.

Contact Felicia Ssempala at [email protected].