Ready for the Runway

Graduating KPU Fashion students show off their wares

At Kwantlen Polytechnic University, it could be the fashion students who have the most extravagant graduation ceremony.

Early last month, fourth-year students of the KPU Chip and Shannon Wilson design school showed off their final projects with a runway show at the Imperial Vancouver on Main St. Thirty-six students demonstrated three outfits each to a packed crowd of parents, professors, and fashion industry representatives.

“It’s very industry-focused, the school maintains relationships with local companies,” says Claire Cormeau, a graduate. “There are many opportunities offered to us after graduation. We’re even placed in a company for an internship in our third year. It’s really great that way, that we’re able to get a foot in the door and start networking.”

Getting into the program is brutal. Entering the program requires the submission of a letter of interest, resume, reference letters, design examples, sketchbooks and two garments, one of which the school specifies. You need to know how to make clothing before you can even enter.

“I think in our year there were over 100 applicants. They only selected 40 out of those, so it’s quite difficult for sure,” says Cormeau. “When I applied we had to have six sewn garments, but I know that number has decreased [since then].”

Speaking to some of the graduates, it seems that getting in was the relatively easy part. Many of them spoke of staying at Richmond campus from the time the doors open until the time security kicks them out.

“I took some sewing in high school—I just did a lot of things on my own, experimenting with fabric,” says Madeline McKibbon. “Twelve-hour days are normal, we’re often the first ones in the school, the last ones to leave. I think it really helped us have a great work ethic.”

McKibbon likens the instructors in the program to mentors. “They really work with us, they help us work through everything, through the whole process. They’re tough, but they’re trying to help us be better designers.”

“We eat, sleep, and breathe fashion,” says Sam Stringer, a graduate at the show. “I think it’s because we really take fashion as more than just clothing. A lot of people read into it in different ways. I use fashion as my art form, other people use it as a way to connect with people with their sports—designing stuff for hiking, biking, and surfing. It means so much more to them than just a class.”

According to some of the students, the program allows you to be as utilitarian or as creative as you like, as long as you can find a niche and market for it. As a result, there’s a large range of different types of clothing. One could argue that some designers are creating wearable art, while others are solving problems.

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The Show 2016 from KPU Wilson School of Design on Vimeo.

Cormeau’s line, Nuage, focuses on creating clothing that looks good on wearers of any age. “It’s really an ageless, ready-to-wear collection, taking differences in how people dress based on their age and bridging that gap. For women past the ages of 50, I found in my research that there’s not really a lot of colour offered, not a lot of fresher styles, so I really focused on that.”

Stringer is on the other end of the creative-utilitarian spectrum. Her line, Vesuvius, is essentially a set of handmade dresses which she describes as wearable paintings, working with a local artist to create them.

“Mine’s more art,” she says. “I think in fashion, you see a lot of two sides. You see functionality, and you see the artistic side, and mine really does focus on the artistic side. All of us together are trying to find ways to make fashion more than just clothing. Because there’s a lot of fast fashion, and a lot of waste, and we don’t want to contribute to that waste any more. So people are either trying to turn their clothing into things that meet a specific need or to add value to it.”

Also designing to reduce fashion waste, Madeline McKibbon’s line, maison margot, was designed with the principles of “wabi-sabi, the philosophy of slowness. It’s really about the small, little details within the clothing, so people can have a strong connection with their pieces, so they can keep them for a long time.”

Bena Yang’s line, Metrix, is for men who are “between 28 and 38, and they’re for men who want to be comfortable in their clothes, but still professional,” she says. “Versatile, especially with all the pockets inside.”

Ashley Morin’s line, Ginger and Flora, is a women’s lingerie line for women with a larger bust size. Morin says the process of creating bras is more like engineering. “I’m focused on the double-D-plus market, because I found that the designs currently in the market were really matronly, outdated, very thick straps, the prints were awful, and so I really looked at the engineering behind the bras and took them apart, and I really remade them. [I focused] on beautiful fabrics and beautiful detailing.”

“These sizes in particular are not carried in the mass market brands like Victoria’s Secret, La Senza, all of that. The problem is when younger women and girls go the store, Victoria’s Secret will fit them in their sizes, and the problem is that the cup size is too small and the band is too big, and thus the band is running up in the back and they’re not getting the support they need.”

Stringer’s dresses are large and intricate. She estimates that she worked almost 300 hours on all three of them. “The last couple of weeks, I was getting an average of about… two hours of sleep per night.”

She characterizes her dresses as being more like wearable art, and she expects the wearers to be women who often go to formal events. “You just don’t have time, but the weird thing is, I loved it,” says Stringer.

Though everyone was doing something different with their clothing, all 36 graduating students were seeking to solve problems and fit into niche markets with their clothing. All of them seemed to agree that the entire last few months of their already brutal program left them without much sleep. Thankfully, their graduation comes with an after party.