Columbia College

Municipality of Chicago

Let’s Build Fashion Excellence in Chicago: Showcasing Local Talent at FGI 2024

Chicago is thrilled to build its fashion legacy by showcasing the creative skill that individuals have in Chicago. Chicago Fashion Week is making its premiere this month with a mission to define a ‘new look’ that places the city first in fashion and threading the eye of Chicago’s Loop. Chicago Fashion Week will connect “a diverse tapestry of citizens from across the metro region united by a vision of a sustainable, communal, and fashionable future.” Columbia College is sharing this narrative with people in Chicago and Milan by embracing Chicago as a global innovation center and carving out a niche and inclusive space for the fashion industry in the Midwest.

 

Columbia College

Columbia College Chicago’s School of Fashion provides a valuable 4-year education to launch your start in fashion and a career-long community of mentors connected throughout the industry. We embrace Chicago, a global innovation center with its own local vibe and a place where we can help you carve out your own niche in fashion and shape what’s next in the industry. At Columbia, we take a “fashion for everyone”* approach, meeting you where you are and showcasing all identities and bodies with our diversity-conscious curriculum and ongoing quest for more sustainable practices. Learn from and alongside fellow change-makers at one of the best values and transformative experiences in fashion studies, Columbia College Chicago’s award-winning Fashion Studies Department.

Collections

Student Name: Rae Breazeale

Capsule collection title: “Remembering the Legacy of Chicago Bauhaus”

Concept collection: In 1937, the Association of Arts and Industries extended an invitation to László Moholy- Nagy to establish and direct a school of design and architecture in Chicago. This vision led to the birth of the Chicago School of Bauhaus. As a former mentor at the Bauhaus School in Dessau, Moholy-Nagy brought with him the philosophy that integrative thinking should infuse

the entire curriculum. At the heart of this curriculum was the Vorkurs (basic course), where Moholy-Nagy cultivated an environment that was both stimulating and healing. He introduced meditation exercises, encouraging students to connect deeply with themselves, allowing them to access their conscious and subconscious realms. This approach empowered them to design from their ‘biological’ center, aligning creativity with their intrinsic instincts. Through the Vorkurs, students explored and learned by trusting their intuitive abilities,creating marvels rooted in instinctive confidence. This mini-collection, a contemporary revitalization of Moholy-Nagy’s teachings at Bauhaus, blends the spirit of 1930s Chicago Bauhaus with modern silhouettes and design approaches. Inspired by exhibition catalogs of that era, the silhouettes and colors of each garment evoke the engravings and photographic works of the Bauhaus students and faculty, whose pioneering creativity reshaped the boundaries of art and design nearly a century ago.

 

Student Name: Joelle Helena

Capsule collection title:“ADAMS”

Concept collection: The first human is a testament to God’s artistry, fashioned from the earth’s dirt and clay. God, the ultimate designer, draws from the elemental palette of nature, shaping a being that reflects His essence. His breath infuses life and consciousness into this form. This collection explores the origins of human existence, confronting the sublime design that intertwines body and spirit. God’s creation reflects beauty and purpose, from the raw materials of the earth to the breath that animates and sustains life.