Show Stopper

The fabric remnants and sewing machines are all put away. The dress form is barely visible under the completed outfit and the music merely a memory. It was however quite different a few short days ago when Color+Couture 2013 was a whirlwind of activity.

Amazing outfits designed and constructed by design firms paired with Interior Manufacturers hit the runway at the Starlight Theatre. Pounding music, bright lights and a raucous crowd set the stage for an amazing evening of creative design and polished craftsmanship.

At SFS Architecture the activity started over a month before as we were randomly paired with Momentum Textiles as our partner for this year’s event. Early meetings over lunch worked to flush out ideas and concepts that married materials and a design parti for this year’s entry. Soon after a core group including Kelsey Fagan, Whitley Fields, Kevin Stiegler, Patti Kangethe, Kelly Stindt, Allison Vandever and Madi Christianer settled in to finalize the design and construct the outfit.

Some members of the SFS team celebrate at Color+Couture.

The design, inspired by the classic game of chess, embodies the Queen within. A piercing crimson red beneath the dark geometric forms emphasizes the Queen’s subtle power and strength. She IS the most dominant piece in the game.

As the evening’s events neared the end of the runway program, the crowd had become slightly complacent and conversation could be heard at times above the pulsing music. Then our Queen, model Whitley Fields, arrived and rocked the house. The Queen’s runway walk was choreographed to the “Royals” by Lorde. As the music pulsed through the audience our Queen ruled the runway, pausing occasionally to perform a chess-like sidestep and deliver a knock‘em dead piercing glance.

As the Queen approached the judges, she popped open her black tailored vest, exposing its crimson underside. The crowd suddenly roared to life, a show stopper moment had just occurred.

The show-stopping moment of the night.

Once again a tremendous amount of hard work went into this year’s Color+Couture by all at IIDA, especially SFS’s own Kelsey Fagan who served as event co-chair. Partnering with Momentum Textiles was also a pleasure with their wonderful material palette and generosity. SFS’ hard work was rewarded with the “Show Stopper Award”. Best of all though was the chance it gave us to better acquaint ourselves with some of our new hires and to use our creative abilities in a slightly different manner, all the while having fun the SFS way.

As the Queen would say #checkmate #yourmove.

Our Queen, Whitley, struts her stuff at about the 16 minute mark of this video.