Tiffany Zhang, a junior from Piedmont High School in California was shocked when her sketch was selected for first place in the 2011 Cornell Fashion Design Award for High School Students, a national competition that attracted 250 entries.

"Mostly, I didn't think it would be possible to make it," Zhang said a few hours before she strode down the runway with her winning creation at the 27th Cornell Fashion Collective spring fashion show April 16 in Barton Hall. "It took me awhile to convince my art teacher that I had really won."

Contest organizers in the Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design (FSAD) challenged students to design a garment styled for "a reception on the moon." Zhang dreamed up "Sinew," a fanciful extraterrestrial outfit perhaps best suited for Lady Gaga. The piece awed the crowd with its flowing sheer black fabric, bizarre helmet and a spiny exoskeleton with tail extensions that waved and danced as model Jen Keane '11 walked.

"The outfit is more out of a video game than a runway," said Zhang, who's considering a future in game or fashion design. "I was thinking a lot about technology and the future and mixing organic elements with mechanical ones."

A team of FSAD students and alumni, directed by Susan Ashdown, the Helen G. Canoyer Professor, used Zhang's sketch to produce the ensemble over several weeks. "It's a very impressive piece," Ashdown said. "It was inventive but also stylish and formal."

Jesse Fair '09 hand-dyed the garment's underlying unitard, while Ellen Hyde '10 molded the carapace. "At first I wasn't sure how to do it, but it was a fun challenge," added Hyde.

Other top finishers in the contest were:

Ted Boscia is assistant director of communications for the College of Human Ecology.