Crawling Back To Fashion

In the spring, for whatever reason, I didn't take a painting class. I don't remember if it was because there were none being offered that fit my schedule or because I decided I wanted to try other media during my foundational studies. In any case, I ended up not being very happy with them. I took silkscreening and sculpture, which sounded fun, but 6 hours a week of something can quickly kill your liking for it if you're not totally into it.

My silkscreening class was particularly difficult because my teacher was a bitch. That might sound harsh but it was a pretty unanimously held opinion within the department. She didn't like my work because I wasn't really interested in conceptual art, and was trying to somehow do painting in silkscreening class. (However, we got along very well my senior year when she became the moderator of our senior thesis critique sessions). I also have a problem with tardiness, and she had this thing where she forced latecomers to do 15 jumping jacks.

Yeah.

Anyway, in these two classes I was trying to figure out how to marry my interest in art and fashion and yet still come out with compelling work that met the conceptual requirements of my professors. In my sculpture class, I ended up making figurative work, including welding a metal armor-like dress.

In my silkscreen course, I experimented with what most people think of when they hear of silkscreening, which is t-shirts. This somehow snowballed into convincing the board of the Korean Association (I think I was Culture Chair or something like that at the time) that I should put on a fashion show within the annual Culture Show, which started out with traditional Korean costume, or hanbok, and finishing with pieces I had created for my class.

I didn't really think much of it besides just really wanting to do something fashion-related, but the roommate of one of the girls who was in my little fashion show happened to be in the audience. She was one of the directors of Eleganza, the biggest fashion show on campus (not that that really means anything to anyone outside of Harvard). Eleganza was less of a fashion show and more of a debaucherous spectacle, one of the few times where Harvard students would let loose in public. They would usually do the show on PreFrosh Weekend, when prospective students came to visit, to try to trick them into believing that Harvard is one big party with lots of hot people dancing around in very little clothing.

She contacted me to put my pieces in the show. (It's a little weird to look at the pics because one of the girls who modeled the pieces actually committed suicide while we were in college.) My blockmates came to support me and it felt great to see my clothes in the show, although they are a bit embarrassing to look at now (I usually find it hard to look at old work without cringing). After the show, my blockmate Michelle, the most fashion-conscious of the bunch, turned to me, and said, "Let's do a fashion show!"

And thus began one of the most difficult projects of my life.