Marymount's Portfolio in Motion and Peter Som

Friday, April 24th was Marymount University's annual Portfolio in Motion fashion show, featuring designs by students in the Fashion Design B.A. program (including the "senior lines" of three garments by each of the graduating design majors). The show was staffed and coordinated by students in the Fashion Merchandizing B.A. and the garments were modeled by Marymount students, so it was a great opportunity for students all around. As faculty, I was able to attend the Friday afternoon reception, luncheon, and fashion show and meet this year's featured designer, Peter Som. Every year, an eminent fashion designer comes to Portfolio in Motion, watches the show, says a few words, and then sits with the graduating designers and gives them individual feedback on their portfolios. Past designers have included Michael Kors, Cynthia Rowley, Carolina Hererra, and Pauline Trigere, to name a few (there is a complete list and more information on PIM here).

Peter Som is a young designer and graduate of Parsons who began his career at Bill Blass before starting his own label in 2001. While Som's bio describes his style as one of "unstudied elegance and refined sensuality," I prefer Style.com's description of his Fall 2009 collection: "upbeat... ladylike without being stiff, and full of optimistic color and tactile interest." Som aims to create ladylike but unfussy clothes and enjoys mixing prints and patterns; in his own words, he explores "the clash of delicate/feminine with bold and graphic."

I particularly like this dress, this coat and this outfit from the Fall 2009 collection, which was apparently shown by appointment since he is no longer working with his financial backer (according to Style.com). The design quality is there for sure, so hopefully it won't have too negative an impact on business.

Peter himself was a delight- professional, kind, humorous, and relaxed. He took his time with each student's portfolio, dispensing helpful comments, gentle criticisms, and encouraging praise and really helping them create the strongest possible portfolio for interviewing. I learned a great amount from listening to him and I am very grateful for how helpful and considerate he was with each student!

The entire Portfolio in Motion event was exquisite: the catwalk design, music, modeling, and (of course) the clothing were all great. It's not meant to be a carbon-copy of an industry show, and while I can't say I've ever been to one of those, I think I'd prefer this kind for sure- it was upbeat, with sharply choreographed modeling by women of a variety of shapes and sizes who were really owning the garments they wore. I think it really highlighted all of the students that worked on putting the show together.

The theme of this year's show was "Enchanted Garden" (which, coincidentally, is an idea that meshes well with Som's aesthetic).

Here are some highlights:

The last shot is of some faculty and students with Som as he reviews a student's portfolio. I'm fourth to the right of Som, in the green suit (sticking out my purple shoes next to my purse under the table).

Marymount Portfolio in Motion and Peter Som

I can't wait to blog about Marymount's 2009 Portfolio in Motion fashion show and its guest designer, Peter Som- but I would like to do so with lots of juicy pictures, which I don't have yet! So watch in the next few days for some great shots of the students' work and some comments on one of my new favorite designers (Som, of course).

Hats, Milliners, and New Orleans (plus Aretha Franklin, Paris Hilton, and SJP)

Hats have been out of fashion since the late 1960s, when all of the traditional rules of couture and propriety were thrown out the proverbial window and replaced with a combination of anti-fashion and ready-to-wear that wasn't interested in following anyone's established dictates. Toppers have survived in some African-American churches and in Britain to some extent, but--even as creative accessories at the racetrack-- they are essentially worn as nods to the fashion rules of the earlier part of the century.Aretha Franklin's inaugural hat and these fanciful numbers worn by Paris Hilton and Sarah Jessica Parker are examples of hats making their way into the fashion scene this year, but I'm not expecting them to pick up any time soon. We're still too focused on bags and shoes as our accessories du jour, and they're easier to pull off with our current (very casual) hairstyles.

Millinery is, therefore, an all-but-lost art, which makes it exciting to find the rare example of a skilled milliner who designs and produces her own hats and maintains her own shop as well! New Orleans' French Quarter boasts Fleur de Paris, a custom millinery shop that also does couture and ready-to-wear (although the shop is mainly hats). I had a chance to chat a bit with milliner Kimberly Benn about her pieces, which she makes in a variety of materials (felt, straw, etc.), blocks to size, and embellishes, either to the customer's taste or to be purchased off the rack. Hats are worn for Mardi Gras balls, high school Homecoming courts, and other formal events in New Orleans, so she has more of a clientèle than she might in a location like Washington. Here are a few of her pieces that I particularly like:
White Rider with Black and White Trim
Brown 5-inch with Brown and White Trim (beautiful on)
Orange, Rust, and Gold Cocktail Hat
There are many more on the site, which I encourage you to explore. Wish I could have gotten one!

While I think this kind of millinery is classic and beautiful, and I wish more people were brave (and wealthy) enough to wear it, it's not fashionable. Her designs don't change much, not because of a lack of creativity, but because they're not dependent on fast-moving, broad-reaching changes in fashion trends. When hats were in fashion, designers created new pieces every season and styles in millinery changed as quickly as- or more quickly than- looks in clothing (much like shoes and handbags today).

What do you think- will hats ever become fashionable again? When and where will we wear them? Do their appearances on celebrities mark a change in accessory focus or merely a creative vintage look?

Tune in soon for news on the Marymount University Portfolio in Motion Show with guest designer Peter Som (starting tomorrow)!


Images of hats and sign from front window display of Fleur de Paris, taken with permission by Whitney Robertson. Ad for Stewart and Co. Paris Millinery from the New York Times, 1924.


All photographs by W. Robertson licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.