IIDA Fashion Remix

IIDA Fashion Remix is a design competition for teams of interior designers paired with design students from Salt Lake Community college and sponsors from interior design suppliers. Each team draws an interior design material out of a hat - things like furniture, wallpaper, carpet, fabric, laminate, etc. Each year BYU's planning department forms a team and enters. This year they drew tile. While they had a design in mind, they didn't have a seamstress. Who did they call? BYU Upholstery of course! Guess who got the job? Keri and Talia. 

Basically we got to use whatever materials are used in tile installation. This included tile, waterproof membrane, and a sort of plastic mesh. Originally the design was a "beaded" bodice (made with crushed tile) and a fluid gathered skirt. It quickly became apparent that the plastic of the waterproof membrane did not have the ease of flow necessary for the design. Our first attempts turned out rather cupcake-y. Ultimately we decided to go big or go home and made a giant three-tiered 6:1 gathered skirt complete with mesh hoop skirt. For the bodice I redesigned a cheap corset from Charlotte Russe adding sleeves, buttons, a key-hole, structured back, and lace up closure. (Basically I remade everything except the front.) With a lot of spray paint, a lot of heavy duty stitching and creativity, and hours of tile and silicone, our design came to life. Here are pictures from tonight's show:

Talia steaming the skirt before judging - note the gloves. It didn't take too many fittings to realize how easily the glass tile sliced up our fingers when tying her in. Gloves were a must when handling any part of that outfit.

Our lovely model Madi practicing on the runway before the show.

While this was going on this man was standing watching and talking to one of the other team members saying, "Oh! Look at that! It's beautiful! Look how tailored and structured it is!" I might have felt an urge to brush off my shoulder.... We got LOTS of compliments. We seriously had some people "ooh"ing and "ah"ing over our dress...

I got to go in with Madi to the judges to sell the outfit - I felt like I was in MIWW all over again, but this time I was selling my design on a model. Other than having to squeeze Madi through a couple of doorways (she was definitely too wide) it went really well. They couldn't believe it was tile or that I had managed to fit all the skirt under a sewing machine. (Truth? I didn't. The last layer had to be hand-sewn.) After judging came pictures with a professional photographer, who, of course, made our outfit look even better that it actually was. At the end of her shoot Talia and I jumped in for a picture with her - we hid under her giant skirt like munchkins in the Nutcracker. It was great. We left Madi settled on the only stool she was capable of sitting on and went to enjoy the festivities before the show!

Upscale event = upscale food. They just kept bringing out different trays of different foods - it was incredible! And soooo tasty! And the bar was nice too. My drink was the quickest mix of the night - one part bottle, two parts water.

FYI - biggest grapes I've ever seen.

Cali, Cali's friend, Wayne - they all got ahold of some extra tickets to come support their shop-mates.

The show itself...was incredible. The models were so well-trained, the music and lights were perfect, the energy, the atmosphere - it was so much fun. I caught pictures of all of the entries:

Laminate - Awarded Best Stage Presence

Free-Form

Wood and carpet yarn.

Not sure what this was made of...but I promise it looked way cooler in person.

The show was amazingly choreographed - super kudos to whoever did that. Before coming out each model had a silhouette to show off the crazy shapes. So fun. The following are some amazing pictures of our girl! She rocked the runway - it was incredible.

Laminate and laminate face - this poor girl was in agony. The dress was heavy and poky.

Chair pieces and electric lights - definitely not my favorite, but it won Judges' Choice.

Upholstery Fabric

Wall Coverings - Awarded Honorable Mention

Carpet

Carpet - Awarded Best Use of a Soft Material

Laminate - Honorable Mention, People's Choice, LOVED this one.

Fabric

Wall Coverings

Carpet - Awarded Best in Show

Receiving the award for Best Use of a Hard Material

And a loooong series of detail shots for those who care:

Long story short? I forgot how much I love doing this type of thing! It felt so good to be creatively sewing again - and watching my work go down the runway? Astounding. I was so proud of my work and could not believe some of the compliments that were coming in. The energy was addicting.

Wearing a VIP badge that says "Team Member"? Awesome. Watching pics of me in the process of making the outfit show up on the screen? Exhilarating. Hearing people talk about my outfit? Exciting. Getting to tell them I made it? Delightful. Greatest experience ever? Check. Hooked? Possibly.