This Thursday March 31, 2011 from 6:30 p.m – 9:30 p.m., the International Academy of Design and Technology (IADT) presents, “Imagine.” An annual fashion runway event, featuring ten of IADT’s graduating fashion design and merchandising students, this year Shirin Askari of Project Runway Season Six will host. Tickets are $20 and VIP tickets are $35 and can be purchased here or by calling IADT at 210-530-9449. Doors open at 6 p.m. for photo opportunities and interviews.
Art fans will want to arrive by 6:30 p.m., as the evening begins with, “The Ten Show,” the graphic design and art exhibit from IADT’s graduating graphic design students. Sponsors of the evening include Dillard’s North Star, Top Knotch Officials, Lari Nelson Fashion Group, Circle of Influence, Sam Paniagua, Jonathan Moreno and Makeup Team, Bare Escentuals, Melendrez Entertainment, Banned Entertainment, Bisli Event Services, Gialex Cosmetics, Normas Creations, Sociallite Marketing, and David Constante. Show proceeds benefit Eva’s Heroes and Career Education Scholarship Fund (CESF).
With more than 30 years as an established institution, the International Academy of Design and Technology offers students a hands-on education with experienced faculty dedicated to providing students with the necessary skills, knowledge, support and guidance to pursue fulfilling career opportunities in the design and technology fields. The San Antonio campus (IADT-San Antonio), which opened in 2007, offers degree programs in graphic design, fashion design and merchandising, merchandising management and advertising design. Students also have the opportunity to take a portion of their coursework online through IADT-Online. The school is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). ACICS is a national accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of Education. IADT-San Antonio does not guarantee employment or salary and is part of Career Education Corporation network of schools (NASDAQ: CECO). For more information, visit the IADT San Antonio website or call (210) 530-9449.
I’m left with many impressions of SXSW’s first ever fashion component, Style X. However, among those impressions I’m referred back to a comment I made in an earlier Fashionation blog: “Fashion is not just a passion; it is a lifestyle that tells a story about ourselves, from something as ubiquitous as what kind of coffee we drink, to something as controversial as what kind of politics we practice.” While at Style X, I learned that many brands and designers are doing just that with their clothes today—getting political and striking up a conversation about it. I ran into a few fashion companies that are not only donating a portion of their success to their chosen non-profit but who have—surprisingly and profitably—built a fashion line for the sole purpose of supporting their cause.
Blake Mycoskie, the founder of Toms Shoes who also happened to speak at SXSW this year, is a successful and famous example of fashion for a cause. A native Texan, Mycoskie went on a trip to Argentina a few years ago, and, shocked to find children without shoes on their feet, returned to the states to create Toms Shoes, a for-profit footwear company which designs the traditional Argentinean shoe, the Alpargata. Each time an American buys a pair of Toms Shoes, a pair is sent to a child somewhere around the world, preventing diseases that over a billion people in the world suffer from as a result of not wearing shoes on their feet.
Open Arms, a sustainable for-profit company featured at SXSW’s Style X, maintains that they’re, “a company with a conscience,” as they enable a better life for refugee women by providing them with jobs that pay livable wages. Open Arms engages the community by asking for donations in the form of old t-shirts, which they recycle to create one-of-a-kind clothing products. The company not only accepts recycled clothing, but volunteers as well.
Krochet Kids International, “Buy a hat, change a life,” teaches developing countries how to crochet to break the cycle of poverty. The non-profit company, while only three years old now, was created by three guys from Spokane, Washington who were even featured in their local paper as the “Krochet Kids,” as their love of snowboarding inspired them to crochet and sell beanies to their high school friends. During college, the friends separated but were inspired by their travels, in particular a trip to Northern Uganda, in which one of the friends learned that the Ugandan people rely heavily on their government because rebel armies had torn the northern country apart. Today, Krochet Kids International teaches the Ugandan people how to crochet so that they can pay them a wage to be independent and support their family.
Krochet Kids International Fortunately, you did not need to attend SXSW’s Style X to get involved with the mission of Toms Shoes, Open Arms, or Krochet Kids International. Next time you need to buy a pair of shoes or a beanie, or get rid of some old t-shirts, you’ll know where to look.
For more “Fashion for a Cause,” join me in San Antonio, Texas this Saturday evening March 26, from 5:30 – 7:30 at the Pearl Brewery’s Aveda Institute. Aveda San Antonio will premiere their first “Catwalk for Water,” a national, annual Aveda event that raises funds and awareness for clean water. Beneficiaries for this runway show include the Gulf Coast Restoration Network and Global Greengrants Fund.
Okay. So I know I’m supposed to be writing about the first ever fashion component that took place this past week at South by Southwest (SXSW).
In addition, I should really be telling you not only about how, in 24 years, it’s the first time fashion has participated at the mega conference, but also how I attended the first ever runway show featuring musicians from SXSW modeling in exhibiting designers’ clothes, sunglasses and accessories.
I should also be telling you about how Keds is currently touring the country, asking an awesome designer from each city, like Austin, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Boston to design a pair of Keds that reflects each city’s character and charm. I should probably also tell you about the newest W Hotel in North America, where I happened to have drinks and dinner tonight. However, all I can think about right now is how my smart phone has suddenly turned into a cash register.
A cash register? That’s right, a freaking cash register! Genius. And didn’t you wish you thought of this application for your smart phone or android?
At exhibit hall number four of the Austin Convention Center stood the “Square” booth. A San Francisco-based company, Square produces the Square, which is exactly that: a little white plastic square that plugs into your smart phone or android, allowing you to swipe a credit card, and charge that card, sending money into your bank account in moments.
Confused? Imagine that you’re at the W Hotel tonight in, I don’t know, Austin, Chicago, or NYC. Imagine that you’re at the end of your dinner with four friends. Imagine that you’re about to pay the bill, and need to split it four ways. You don’t want to bug the server to split the bill because you don’t want to be “that table.”
If you have Square, then you can choose to pay the entire bill on your own, and then have each of your four friends swipe their card onto your Square, type in the amount they owe you, like $30, and then suddenly, voila—$30 is transferred into your bank account, just like that. Can you imagine? I’m thinking it’s time to take out a bunch of friends, get them roaring drunk, and have them hand over their credit cards at the end of the night.
If you’re excited about the potential of your phone becoming a cash register, you’ll be even more excited to learn that this app is entirely FREE! You can log on to the Square website, download the application onto your iPhone or Droid device, then activate your account in minutes (while the actual tiny little Square device gets sent to you).
I don’t know about you, but I simply cannot think of anything more fashionable and trendy today than downloading money to yourself!
South by Southwest’s first ever fashion component, Style X, kicked off with a Shop Hop event—a tour of Austin’s emerging boutiques. By the end of the night, and after being shuttled around to several shops, I tallied up my own short list I’m calling Shop Stops: the places you and my friends would actually be interested in stopping by and checking out. Here, in no particular order are the final three, Plain Ivey Jane, Estilo, and Stag—the “boyfriend” store also featured in GQ Magazine:
Surrounded by a variety of landmarks, Plain Ivey Jane is located in Austin’s 2nd street district off Guadalupe and 2nd street. Near other landmarks such as the newest W Hotel in North America, the Austonian, and within walking distance to City Hall, Plain Ivey Jane is a landmark itself as it hosts the infamous feather extensions that are “all-the-rave” in Austin right now, according to a UT broadcast journalism student, named Melanie, and everyone I kept running into wearing this feather extension I just had to get my hands on.
The locally owned boutique’s “overstock” slogan, “It’s okay to be a label snob. Just don’t pay full price for it,” resonates with my motto of making fashion your own at a reasonable price; within the baby-blue painted walls and just below the hanging vinyl records, Marc by Marc and other fave design wear were featured at a reasonable price. The original jewelry designed locally includes thin gold and silver chains, gold cabbage patch kid doll necklaces, and more feathers! This store is all for women, sorry guys. For more info, log on to plainiveyjane.com. Feather extensions are only $20, come in a variety of colors.
Estilo Boutique, located on 2nd Street and Willie Nelson Boulevard, is a fashion gallery for men and women, and is literally a gallery as the clothes hang from elaborate shifting rods fastened into the ceiling to showcase the clothes like art.
A projection screen featuring runway shows flanks the right wall and is a tribute to Austin—I’m told that projection screens are a fetish here, as they’re in homes, venues, and now, I guess, boutiques. Unfortunately though, just like an art gallery, Estilo’s clothes are expensive and you kind of have to wonder if buyers hang the clothes up on their walls at home in order to justify spending $350 on a dress that could probably only be worn a couple of times, on appropriate occasions. Even a fellow Shop Stopper who happened to be a professional, tenured model visiting from NYC remarked on the price point. Nevertheless, designers hanging include Mark Anthony, Nicole Miller, Yoana Baraschi, and more. For silky dresses in an array of colors or unique snake skin and sheath dresses, check out the website: estiloaustin.com.
Last but not least on the Shop Stop list is Stag which is located on South Congress and Elizabeth Street, conveniently next to that yummy walk-up Home Slice Pizza Place, because we all know that most men can only shop for a bit before they need to be fed.
Stag, which I’m also calling the “boyfriend store” as your boyfriend will want to shop there as much as you’ll love shopping there for him, is not only owned and made for men, by men, but according to one of the owners, it caters to the man’s man in every man, “You know how men want what men want, and if they want the table that t-shirt is sitting on, it’s theirs.” As if the three motorcycles sitting outside the front door, deer heads hanging from the wall and an old-fashioned drug store sign aren’t enough to tell you this is a man’s haven. I imagined the conversation that took place in order for the owners to come to the conclusion that everything inside must be on sale: “Yeah, honey. I like the shirt, thanks. But while we’re here I also need a table for my office and this cool ranch-like shelf. Oops. I think I broke it.”
While the store carries a variety of brands, including Baxter, Red Wing, Levis and Life after Denim, the gem of the store are the Helms Boots. Helms, while made by a designer from San Francicso now based in Austin, is often marketed by a Danish photographer who began selling the boots to his European friends a few years ago, only to find that not only was there a demand for the unique and stylish boot abroad, but that they’re actually long-lasting and comfortable to wear years later.
According to one of the owners, that’s one of the points of the store: to sell a piece of clothing that is still a guy’s favorite ten years from now. For more information, or just to be nosey before going, check out their website: www.stagaustin.com.
