MEMAMEMO: Art Institute of Philadelphia

Upon returning home from Thursday, October 8, 2010 shows I recall looking through the various posts on Facebook, discussing the student contest that took place during Philadelphia fashion week. One of the posts caught my eye, it said “Art Institute of Philadelphia should have won”, while Drexel was named the winner of the night. I tried to find the reasons for the post, as it did not come from either a student designer or a show participant, and the confident tone of the writer made me curious. I did too think that Drexel presented the stronger collection overall, however while glimpsing back through the photos of Art Institute’s collection I caught a surprising find. When photographing the many runways of SS2011 collections in New York, I realized how uniform most of the designs were, there was so much beauty, but not everyone dared to experiment outside of the safe zone. One of the collections that caught my eye for its fresh feel, perhaps, because it was different from the safe norm of the rest. It was presented by Odd Molly and attempted to outline a new trend, where a hip urban youngster either rebels or finds beauty in grandmother’s clothes, a definitive modern, yet vintage look that shimmers through urban teenagers, a look that is claimed to be an international sensation. Interestingly, a similar, quite fashionable silhouette was presented by the Art Institute of Philadelphia. The designer presented vintage lace in a modern form of a hoodie, the shiny silks reminiscent of the elegance of 1920s in a relaxed, modern, loose fitting cuts and crinkled cropped, non-conforming pants and it caught the feel of the bright and colorful 70s that’s dominating the runways in an abstract pattern of the jacket so, naturally, I was pleasantly surprised and somewhere, in the back of my mind, felt that this particular student designer defined the style better than the rest. Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps it was not. The following two looks, presumably, by the same designer fell slightly short of expectation, as they were a little simple and the attempt to introduce feather accents seemed to repeat the style created by Anna Sui in her SS2011 collection inspired by American prairie. Nonetheless, a most trendy surprise of the night for me, indeed ,was found in the collection of Art Institute of Philadelphia. Hopefully my quest for the name of the designer will bring results and the puzzle can be solved to satisfaction.

1st Photo from the left is the mentioned look, part of the collection presented by the Art Institute of Philadelphia. The following photos are the looks from Odd Molly SS 2011 collection