When 2003 alumna Sole Salvo visited the Grounds five years ago, the artist in her was disturbed.
"The art at this campus is really minimal," Salvo said. "It was even worse four years ago. There's no creative outlet for sewing, fashion."
Within a semester of her arrival, Salvo had established the Fashion Design Club, which was her solution to the art deficit at the University. Salvo's love for fashion took her to New York City after graduation, where she now is attending a one-year fashion program at Parsons School of Design. Although FDC's founder has moved on to new levels of fashion design, FDC is thriving at the University amidst a community of artists who derive from it the same creative satisfaction that Salvo once did.
Designing a club
Third-year College student Hallam Roth, who took the reins as FDC president when Salvo left, said she is amazed each semester by the club's following.
"I'm always surprised that there're so many people at U.Va. who are willing to put in so much time," Roth said. "These people just come out of the woodwork. All this hidden talent, all these people who love doing this -- where else would they go?"
Roth, who was among the club's first recruits, remembers FDC's first show, which showcased 16 outfits on eight models at the Tuttle Coffee House. She said the show last fall broke records with around 120 outfits and an audience of over 350 in the Newcomb Hall Ballroom.
Roth does not design clothing, and she emphatically refuses to model. A jewelry maker who discovered a passion for metal-smithing after coming to college, Roth helped the emerging organization in whatever areas it needed assistance. She did everything from accenting models' outfits with unique, handcrafted jewelry to digitally creating programs and brochures. For her, the club has been, first and foremost, about having fun, regardless of participants' previous fashion experience.
"The vast majority of people who come have no idea how to sew," Roth said. "Every once in a while we get a person who's modeled, and that's really exciting for us because we're like, 'great, you can show us how it's really done.'"
Fourth-year College student Karen Alladin joined the fashion train in the club's early stages. Considerably impressed by the array of outfits in FDC's first show, Alladin was inspired to become a model -- something she said she had never before thought possible, if only for reasons of height.
Today, Alladin is among the club's veteran models and serves as one of FDC's model chairs, teaching newcomers how to "walk, pose and be comfortable on stage."
"I don't really take it that seriously," Alladin said laughing. "There's no formula -- just be natural, have fun with it. It's just walking, we do it everyday. People get nervous about how it's a 'runway show.'"
Aside from the stiletto heels that FDC models don while strolling the runway, they have not much else in common, Roth noted.
"The designers are all shapes and sizes, so they don't want to make clothes they won't be able to wear later," she said. "They have themselves in mind, and we find models to fit them."
Dreams cloaked in fashion
The designers differ not only in appearance, but also in experience and style, thus giving each show's three parts -- ready-to-wear, couture and evening-wear -- a diverse smattering of fashion preferences.
For third-year College student Launa Forehand and her sister, third-year Architecture student Leslie, the club was one of the first outlets for them to loudly proclaim their long-stifled creative fashion choices. Identical twin sisters from a small, rural town in Virginia, Launa and Leslie said sewing was among the first skills they learned, at the age of six, from their grandmother and mother. While the pair grew adept at sewing, it was their designing tendencies that were discouraged throughout childhood, they said.
"We were made fun of for our fashion in high school," Launa said. "If it wasn't from the Express or the Gap, your clothes would be questioned."
Their town's wary reactions to their fashion experiments convinced Leslie and Launa to resort to adapting dress patterns for their designs, and they only ventured into completely carefree, unguided designs for their prom dresses.
"We made stuff, but they usually just stayed in the drawers as ideas," Leslie said. "Sadly, we accepted that it wasn't the cool thing to do and didn't do it very much."
But the days of conventional fashion are gone. Upon coming to the University, the twins found a following for their fashion sense -- not only in FDC, in which Leslie designs and Launa mainly models, but also in the local community. Leslie, an architecture student who dreams of being a fashion designer, finds her clothes frequently in demand.
"It happens all the time because people really do want to be involved with what they wear," she said. "They have the idea -- they just don't know how to execute it."
Salvo, who made all her clothes in college, found her sewing and design abilities greeted with similar enthusiasm. By the end of college, she was designing not only everyday clothing, but also wedding gowns. Like Launa and Leslie, Salvo's sewing skills also began at a young age.
"I wasn't allowed to watch TV as a kid, so I had to find other ways to amuse myself," Salvo said. "I used to make my own patterns when I was like 12."
The designated designer of her friends' prom and homecoming dresses in high school, Salvo said she soon knew that fashion design was what she wanted to do with her life. FDC, a step toward this goal, instilled in Salvo a great deal of confidence and direction, she said.
"It gave me a chance to explore my ideas on fashion, gave me some freedom, before going into a structured program," she said. "I think the club really helped me with moving on to New York. It helps me keep going -- just knowing that I've showcased my work and people accept it and like it."
Another devotee of fashion design, fourth-year College student Chandani Kohli, is a relative newcomer to the field of fashion. Kohli, who started as a model, said she soon realized that fashion was the answer to her creative instincts. She now models her own designs, as she learns the craft of sewing.
"It taps into my creative side," Kohli said. "I love color, I love fabric. I love how you can manipulate a woman's look through your creative sense. I think you can be whatever you want to be, and you create that image. It's powerful in a sense."
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