Fashion students’ designs recreate ‘A Cabinet of Curiosities’

The theme and designs were inspired by a class field trip to Manhattan

From insects to flowers, from birds to mammals, Fashion Design and Merchandising students at the Center for Career Services felt inspiration from nature and beyond while crafting their latest creations.

Their intricate designs were on display this week during the program’s end-of-the-year showcase, an event entitled “The Museum Collection: A Cabinet of Curiosities.” Fellow students, teachers, staff, and family members visited the exhibit, which offered the young designers a chance to show off their creativity.

“This was a really hard project. We had a lot to do and had to go through a lot of steps to complete it,” said Londyn Generette, a junior from New Rochelle whose design was inspired by spider webs. “It’s been rewarding for us to have our classmates come and see all of the effort we put into this.”

  The theme was inspired directly by a class trip to an exhibit of the same name at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Cabinet of Curiosities became popular during the Renaissance period and included various objects that were categorized as natural, human-made, exotic, or scientific. To that end, the students’ chosen designs were categorized into groups: Ornithology (birds), Mammalogy (mammals), Anatomy, Geology, Botany (plants), Entomology (insects), Ichthyology (fish) and Malacology (mollusks).

“All of the students were first inspired by our visit to the Cabinet of Curiosity exhibit,” Fashion Design & Merchandising teacher Carmen Galiano said. “Then it was their turn to think about what it was that inspired them.”

Among influences were spiders, leopards, dried flowers, bones, peacocks and more. One student created three different clothing items inspired by the Victorian period, when Cabinet of Curiosities were still popular.

Lucie Oh, a junior from Edgemont High School, said she poured through social media posts, photos, and movies before selecting canine teeth.

“I really enjoyed this,” Oh said. “I had a lot of fun. To see your own work being enjoyed by others is really exciting.”

A video played throughout the presentation that featured several of the dresses being modeled by students or their classmates. The scenes told the deeper story behind those designs through the visuals and sound and music.

Several other CCS programs contributed, including TV/Video Production and Sound Production, who helped shoot, edit and optimize the sound for the video; Cosmetology, which provided hair and makeup for the models; and Commercial Art, who printed out pop-up images the enhance the presentation.

Eileen Yip, the School Social Worker, also provided coaching for the models. Ms. Galiano also thanked the school’s Operations and Maintenance workers for transporting mannequins and other items that helped transform a conference room into a fashion exhibit.

“It wouldn’t look as great as it does without everyone’s hard work,” Ms. Galiano said.