Show-stopping dresses, ready-to-wear pieces, and one-of-a-kind outfits stepped onto the runway at San Joaquin Delta College for “A Story of Fashion” this month.
The free fashion show returned to the campus quad on May 1 after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Current apparel design students and alumni showcased their collections during the evening show produced by Delta College’s Fashion Program.
Natalie Sconce, associate professor of fashion design at Delta College, told The Stockton Record ahead of the show why the event is so crucial for student learning.
“When you get into the room with the models for rehearsals, and when you see them coming in for fittings, it feels real again and they need that,” Sconce said. “We have classes that can be completely taken online, but there’s something about being in the classroom, being around the other students, seeing what everyone else is doing.”
“A Story of Fashion” was created in 2012 when the Fashion Event Production and the Fashion Collection Design classes were first introduced to Delta’s curriculum, according to Leslie Asfour, professor and chair of the fashion and interior design programs.
“The concept was to create a capstone experience for the students in the fashion design program and those in the fashion merchandising program to collaborate on this finale event,” Asfour said via email.
The design process begins with the designers’ inspirations, Asfour said. From there, students develop their collections. They sketch out the design, pattern each piece to a specific model, cut and sew the garments to fit the model.
Each student buys their own fabrics and materials, which can often be “very expensive,” according to Asfour.
Asfour said students in the Fashion Event Production class have to locate a venue, develop a theme, recruit models, and put the event together. They also create the marketing materials, media releases and kits and create invitations for the guests.
The 2020 show was expected to be their biggest show, but they were shut down in the middle of planning it, the professor said.
“That was a sad time,” Asfour said. “We had a large group of design students mid-creation of their collections and a large event production class that was excited about producing a show.”
Asfour said collections in this year’s show include four alumni.
“Our finale collection is from one of those graduates, Kathy Vang, whose collection was shown at New York Fashion Week,” Asfour said.
Ahead of the fashion show, students in the interior design program also exhibited their works.
From inspiration to the runway
Stockton native Justin Hung, 28, designed a collection he called “femme fatale.”
Hung’s inspiration for the collection came from the animated show, “Batman: Caped Crusader.” The show was created by the same creator of Batman the animated series, which he grew up watching, he said.
“This was a much more 1940s noir take on it. That kind of piqued my interest,” Hung said. “From there, I started to explore 1940s, 1950s film noir, and then I kind of took interest in the femme fatale archetype.”
“Femme fatale” refers to “a seductive and beautiful woman who brings disaster to anyone with whom she becomes romantically involved,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The femme fatale became a principal character in the detective novels and classic film noir.
The apparel design student’s four-piece collection included two black dresses, a silver dress and a two-toned red dress. This was Hung’s first collection.
With the help of his professor, Hung described the collection as noir, sultry and retro.
Hung said he had been working on his collection throughout the entire semester, with a few changes due to resources and textiles.
“I really wanted some type of bombshell,” Hung said. “This dress doesn’t look like a Jessica Rabbit dress, but I wanted to kind of have one that kind of had that feel to it and really pop.”
To find materials, Hung traveled to Berkeley, Sacramento and San Francisco. Many times, he would bring swatches back to Sconce for her advice on the materials.
“Finding textiles was an interesting part of the process. It was actually surprisingly challenging to find exactly what I was looking for in certain colors,” Hung said. “That’s one thing that I really appreciate about my professors in this program. In addition to teaching you how to make clothes and how to form a collection, from concept to creation, I feel I’ve learned a lot about adaptability and how to pivot and how to make it work with the resources that I have.”
Hung is a returning Delta College student who graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. Currently, he works as a substitute teacher.
“I always end up coming back to this somehow,” Hung said. “Even when I was at Sac State, I was taking these classes recreationally … the beginning sewing classes. It was after I had graduated and I didn’t know what I was going to do, I came back to this program.”
Hung said he was appreciative of his professors and classmates. If it hadn’t been for them, he doesn’t think he would be where he is at right now, he said.
“This program isn’t solely geared toward students that want to transfer,” Hung said. “This program is so versatile that you can use it to further your education, or, in my case, you can use it to develop a portfolio, to potentially apply to jobs.”
Hung said he hoped that when the community saw their collections, they could tell how much effort and energy was put into the whole production.
“I hope they feel impressed, not only with me, but the program itself,” Hung said. “I hope that they look at all of our collections and can tell, ‘Wow, this is a great program.'”
‘Women can wear whatever they want to wear and still look cool’
Fiona Currie, 23, also presented her first collection at the fashion show.
“I originally came into fashion because I love film and costumes in film, and how they help with character development,” Currie told The Stockton Record. “That’s a really interesting idea of seeing how a character grows through their clothes or seeing how they portray a character through their costume.”
The Modesto native is an apparel design major who is graduating this semester.
Her goal is to become a costume designer or work in a costume team. She said she became interested in costume design after she watched Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, a 2019 romance/drama film.
Currie said Yoji Yamamoto is a fashion designer she is inspired by.
“He does a lot of asymmetry that I really loved and fell in love with this collection that I’m working on, and just androgyny, I’ve always kind of exhibited through my own style,” Currie said. “I wanted to bring that in, and that women can wear whatever they want to wear and still look cool.”
Currie designed a collection of four looks: three separates and one dress. It took the entire semester to create her collection, she said.
Currie and Sconce described the student’s collection with the words asymmetry, androgyny and structure.
“I hope that they can just look at it and see women in kind of men’s clothes and feel cool in them,” Currie said. “It’s a different take on what a woman can wear. I hope that they think it’s cool. I hope that my models feel beautiful in what they’re wearing.”
She said her mom has been there for her and has helped her persevere through the experience.
“I’ve been stressed for months now, but it’s really cool to see it all come together. See what was on paper come into fashion fabric and become what it is right now,” Currie said. “I truly never thought that I would get to this point, even starting this class. It’s cool to see that it actually came to be.”
Currie also highlighted the importance of shopping small and sustainability with clothing. She said she feels lucky that the Central Valley has this “amazing program.”
“People always are like, ‘There’s no money in the industry,’ but you’re wearing a shirt right now, so there has to be,” Currie said. “It’s important to know where clothes come from, who’s making them, and this is a great introduction.”
Fashion at Delta College
Asfour said the fashion show featured about 60 models wearing a total of 12 collections.
Sconce said many students who take apparel design do so because they want to have a business of their own.
“I teach the physical part of it. I teach the connections. Leslie is the one who teaches you how to take that knowledge and how to create a business out of it,” Sconce said. “It’s really helpful, especially in this community, for people who want to have their own business, who want to be entrepreneurs, who don’t necessarily have the ability to work for a company in the Bay Area or somewhere else. It’s great for Stockton.”
Sconce said after the show, the students work on their portfolios with samples of everything they did throughout the semester such as the renderings that they drew, flats in ink, cost sheets, pattern cards and more.
“These students, they pour their heart and soul into it,” Sconce said. “We’re so proud of everyone who showcases.”
Sconce said students in the program normally create a six-piece collection, but since this was the first show back, they started with four this year. The students have 17 weeks from the beginning of the semester to work on their collections.
Sconce said they are working on offering a credit/no credit version of the beginning sewing classes for anyone in the community who is interested in taking it.
“That would be wonderful for someone coming in who doesn’t care about a degree, doesn’t care about making it into a business, they just want to learn the sewing aspect,” Sconce said. “Our beginning sewing class, so many people take it … and then they end up loving it and taking the rest.”
The class is listed on the Delta College website as Fashion 30 Basic Industry Sewing.
“I try to make the beginning sewing classes as affordable as possible. I tell them, ‘Come in with what you have, borrow what you can. If you don’t have sewing scissors, bring in kitchen scissors. Doesn’t matter. Use bed sheets. Use curtains, go to the thrift store,'” Sconce said. “I want it to be accessible.”
To learn more about Delta College’s fashion program, visit deltacollege.edu.
Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. To support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
