FADS uses dark, isolating themes during show to bring awareness to climate change

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The lights dimmed. The stage managers adjusted cameras on tripods at each corner of the square shaped runway. Blue, green and purple shapes sat at the center of the runway covered in textured fabric. Smoke rose as people settled in their seats. The show was about to begin.

This past weekend, the Fashion and Design Society hosted the second part of their two-part fashion show series that focused on Earth before and after humans. The group organized Biotic Wonders, the first show in the series, in the fall, and put on their second show, Abiotic Wanderers, last Friday in the Underground at the Schine Student Center.

Abiotic Wanderers played off the Biotic Wonders show theme, including the earth and nature, although it took a darker twist, said Jessie Zhai, the creative director and co-president of FADS. Zhai wanted to create a somewhat alarming atmosphere for viewers, she said. Her goal was to showcase how climate change and human activity will affect the Earth in the future.

“The theme is pretty dark and isolating,” Zhai said. “I want the audience to enter a world that is very unfamiliar to them.”

Unlike in the Biotic Wonders show, which revolved around neutral and earthy toned garments, designers turned to silvers, blacks and metals to create futuristic looks.

Alex Vaida, a freshman mechanical engineering major, used sustainable fabrics, wires and copper her neighbor, who is an electrician, provided to create a head and neck piece. Vaida, who also designed a look for Biotic Wonders, said she was excited to be included in a FADS runway show again.

“I greatly appreciate how FADS has given me an outlet where I can express my creative side apart from the science and STEM work I’m constantly doing,” Vaida said.

Emily Goldberg, the fashion director and other co-president of FADS, acts as the liaison between designers, the fashion design department and FADS. As a senior fashion design major, Goldberg said she has always been very close with the designers and is constantly at the warehouse.

Zhai and Goldberg have been part of FADS since their freshman year. Goldberg started on the set design team before she shifted to the styling team, and finally took over the fashion director role this year.

One of Goldberg’s jobs as fashion director is finding designers for shows. At the beginning of each semester, she sends out a designer call on the FADS Instagram and through the design department email.

Danny Kahn | Design Editor

Once the designers have been accepted into the show, Goldberg checks in with each person twice throughout the semester to ensure their looks are on theme and that they will meet their deadlines. She encouraged anyone who wants to show their work to apply to FADS, especially because fashion is so subjective.

“We want as many people as we can get, because everyone always has such different interpretations of the theme,” Goldberg said.

Samantha Myers, a sophomore fashion design major and a member of the styling team, created two pieces for the show inspired by the 1960s. A lot of Myers’ work is vintage-inspired, and she wanted to create a look that embodied a “futuristic” style for that decade.

Myers worked with plastics to combine her vintage style with a futuristic twist — she created a chest plate for one look and a space helmet for another.

The designer’s futuristic looks paired perfectly with the aesthetic of the set, said Laney Marra, a fifth year architecture student, and Addison Jordan, a fourth year architecture student. They said they wanted to create an ambiance that reflects an uncanny valley of what is natural and what is artificial.

“We were really interested in the wandering aspect of Abiotic Wanderers,” Jordan said. “We took inspiration from cyber punk and cyborg aesthetics.”

Marra wanted to create tension between the models and the set in a dystopian way, and wanted to evoke a theme of “man against a machine or greater force,” she said.

Myers and Jordan created inflatable rock-shaped objects that burst out of the middle of the runway illuminated by different colored lights to create an augmented and futuristic aesthetic. They said they hoped to create an atmosphere that would compliment the models’ looks and allow the audience to feel like they are being transported into a different world.

Goldberg expressed how much pride she has in the current FADS team. Many members of the e-board and general fashion team have been with FADS since freshman year and have formed a tight-knit community, she said.

Zhai added that she feels lucky that she has a community of dedicated fashion designers and enthusiasts to reach out to once everyone graduates. She said the Abiotic Wanderers show felt like a celebration of the four years of work Zhai has put into FADS.

“This show is like the end of an era, just because so many people will be going their separate ways,” Zhai said. “This show has been very exciting for me but also very sad to see it come to an end.”

DISCLAIMER: Jessie Zhai was a contributing photographer for The Daily Orange. She does not influence the editorial content of the Culture section.