Finalist from Dallas Announced in Nationwide Fashion Design Contest
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(Oct. 20, 2009) - Local student, Christine Porter, will represent The Art Institute of Dallas in The Humane Society of the United States' fifth annual Cool vs. Cruel Fashion Design Competition. Cool vs. Cruel challenges students enrolled in The Art Institutes Fashion Design programs throughout North America to improve a runway look by Burberry, Thakoon, Michael Kors or Alexander McQueen, by finding creative ways to replace and reinterpret the use of animal fur.
Porter's design is a silver polyester taffeta dress lined in polyester, with princess panels and the quilting technique of tripunto, a shaggy maroon and grey yarn skirt, with fringe across chest and back and extra large maroon hook-n-eyes to the clasp the garment shut.
"The dress was so time intensive, it is more of a campaign, a conceptual piece of art, it stands for the bloodshed of all animals, and represents armor, and the fight for humanity," stated Porter. "The rigid yet soft shell of the taffeta infused with the yarn resembles that of a warrior fighting for a greater cause, a softer side of life. Battle was my main inspiration. Sorrow, and inhumane acts, the tripunto, creates a new texture from a smooth texture, nothing is as it seems, it is not the fabric, it is what is beneath, the yarn. It is not the fur that is hated; it is the process, the cruelty, the death."
Porter is among the 16 local finalists who were chosen out of more than 100 entries to compete for the top prize nationally. Their entries will be judged by a panel of fashion industry judges including designers Marc Bouwer, Charlotte Ronson, Victoria Bartlett, Nick Friedberg and Elizabeth Olsen; magazine editors Dana Wood, Mickey Boardman and Shelly Vella; and renowned fashion photographer Nigel Barker. The grand-prize winner will receive a trip to New York City for the award presentation on Nov. 11, as well as an expense paid, weeklong internship during NY Fashion Week with celebrated fur-free designer Victoria Bartlett.
"This contest allows future professional designers to show major designers like Michael Kors or Alexander McQueen that not only is fur unnecessary, but that there are more creative and aesthetically pleasing design options on the table for those with an innovative eye and a compassionate fashion philosophy," said Sarika Reuben, deputy manager of the HSUS' fur-free campaign. "
Learn more at humanesociety.org/coolvscruel or http://www.artinstitutes.edu/pr.aspx?ID=ai1007.
Media contact: The HSUS - Heather Sullivan: 301.548.7778; hsullivan@humanesociety.org