SCAD Style Lab gives students a career boost

Two weeks before the annual Savannah College of Art and Design student fashion show in Savannah, Makensangla Imcha is heading off a fashion emergency.

One of her models is down with a sprained ankle, so Imcha springs into action, fitting the dress designed for the out-of-commission catwalker to another model just days before a jury decides whether she will be among the 28 students invited to show their collections. She can't afford to lose a coveted spot in the show for a freshman error such as an ill-fitting dress.

It has taken months of designing and refining for Imcha and other SCAD Atlanta students to get to this point. They were aided in the journey by two major designers as part of SCAD Style Lab. While the program has been a staple on the Savannah campus for years, this is the first year SCAD Atlanta students have had the benefit of working with established designers to create their senior collections.

Bryan Bradley and Angel Sanchez were the chosen designers who traveled to Atlanta five times in the course of the semester to meet with small groups and offer encouragement or criticism as students moved their visions from sketches to garments. For the students, working elbow to elbow with known designers was the chance to get a taste of the world they hope to enter. For the designers, it was an opportunity to rediscover the joy of designing without constraint.

As early as their first meeting, Imcha decided that Sanchez's strength was garment construction -- a strength she could use.

"My designs are conceptual and intellectual in their approach," Imcha said. "[Sanchez] taught me that I need to tone down my ideas. He pays so much attention to detail."

The attention paid off when Imcha undertook tasks such as creating a necklace of knitted spheres in complementary colors from four-ply yarn or constructing an asymmetrical dress of Indian silk with a print-covered lining.

Imcha, a native of northeastern India, had planned to attend the London School of Fashion but settled on SCAD after deciding that exposure to other arts disciplines offered her more of a challenge. It is quite a different experience from the Venezuelan-born Sanchez, known for his elegant evening and wedding gowns. He never attended a fashion school, instead learning the craft of design from his dressmaker mother.

"To have the opportunity to see students do fashion ... is more than teaching," Sanchez said. "I am learning."

The biggest thing he has learned is that every idea is a fantastic idea, a stance his mom took when encouraging his early career.

"If she had criticized me, I wouldn't feel like I had the freedom to do this," he said.

Bradley exhibited the sames sort of moxie as a young designer, knocking on doors with his portfolio and not a lot of experience. "I can't believe people didn't kick me out," he said.

He went on to work for several designers, only to get fired by one company, a lesson that taught him that getting fired isn't the end of the world. He sees himself in the ambition of SCAD students. "They are more realistic than me. Fashion and corporate culture have changed over the years. They have a more defined flow chart," Bradley said.

And so Sanchez and Bradley vowed to give students the dose of reality they needed, meeting with their respective groups to mull over portfolios, pin hems and suggest fabrics or redesigns. Bradley even sent material remains from his New York studio for students to work into their designs.

Though there is always a measure of respect in the designer student exchange, sometimes drama ensues.

"This is what I want to focus on," Bradley said to student Susan Schnedeker, 22, pointing to the hem of a skirt with three rows of smocking. "Ask yourself if you want smocking," Bradley said.

"I was worried it would look weird," Schnedeker said.