Melania Nice '99 works in 218 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall Monday on her outfit for this Saturday's Cornell Design League fashion show. Charles Harrington/University Photography
This Saturday Barton Hall will be transformed from ROTC to ritzy as the students of the Cornell Design League (CDL) take over and present their 13th Annual Spring Fashion Show.
The show will be from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are available from the Willard Straight Hall ticket office for $7; $5 with Cornell ID.
"It's going to be even better than it was last year," promised CDL President Samantha Youngman '97.
Nineteen students will present complete clothing lines they've designed and constructed to be displayed by five to 10 models, while eight others will present one or two garments designed and constructed as part of a theme line.
Students get their inspiration from wide-ranging sources. Viewers two years ago were treated to a line of dresses representing notable buildings, such as the Empire State Building, Schoellkopf Stadium and McGraw Tower.
This year senior Lauren Sweder, who has participated in the CDL fashion show for the past two years, is presenting a line themed around flowers. Sophomore Nat Stern, who will be showing a line for the first time, was inspired by the black-and-white and plaid clothing favored by ska musicians.
Many of the student designers are textiles and apparel majors, while others simply have an interest in fashion and design. The design league and its fashion show was founded in 1984 by four students interested in the fashion industry, and it has continued to grow ever since. Last year the fashion show moved out of the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room location it had packed for years and into the much larger Barton Hall. This weekend a total of 28 designers, with the aid of more than 100 models, will show their work at Barton.
Completely student-run, the Cornell Design League aims to give its members a chance to display their work and express their individual inspirations and talents. While textile and apparel classes give students the opportunity to learn the rudiments of design and construction, the design league offers an extra degree of freedom.
In addition to the fashions, all of the stage set-up, lighting, advertising, hair styling, make-up and modeling for the fashion show is done by Cornell students.
"The clothes are always fab and the show gives the designers experience in a field that is not so easy to break into," says student model Tahl Colen '97.
As designs move from abstract conceptions to paper patterns, from draft paper to samples cut on muslin, and to the final fabric and on to the models' bodies, the pressure mounts for student-designers. Dorm rooms are littered with fabric scraps and the design league's studio space in Martha Van Rensselaer is host to late-night sewing sprees.
"I'm moving in there now," designer Lauren Sweder '97 said last week.