Third Place
Feature Story
Division 1
A foundation in fashion
Taylor Bundy
Grade 11
Intelligencer Journal- Freestyle
Adviser: Claudia Esbenshade
Pennsylvania College of Art & Design is headquarters to a host of varied fine arts, photography and design classes for students of virtually all ages. After introducing the new curriculum during the fall of 2007, PCAD now offers fashion design courses and teens are taking advantage of them.
“I think it’s great to offer a fashion design program. I think (the fashion design program) is a great opportunity for Lancaster,” said MeAee Oh-Ranck, instructor of PCAD’s current Fashion Illustrations class, which debuted Feb. 5. The approximately eight-week course centers on drawing fashion poses and enhancing the designs with color media.
Oh-Ranck believes PCAD to be a “growing school.” The fashion design instructor continued, “There is a waiting list (for fashion courses). Lots of students are excited.”
Continuing Education, which is the curriculum under which the class is offered, is a department of PCAD that includes classes open to the public, not just exclusively to college students.
“Anyone can sign up for a class…most (classes) are geared to beginners,” said Continuing Education Director Tracy Beyl.
The school’s three-hour Saturday morning Fashion Illustrations class is comprised of high school students who share an interest in fashion design.
“My students are mostly in high school, and are preparing portfolios,” said Oh-Ranck. “…because most fashion design schools require students to have a portfolio of their work….PCAD prepares students for fashion design school.”
Eight students attend the weekly Fashion Illustrations class, and, according to Oh-Ranck, most of her students want to continue to study fashion in college.
Lancaster Catholic High School senior Maria Ozmen, 18, took PCAD’s Fashion Figure Drawing during the fall of 2007. The course focused heavily on learning the basics of fashion proportions, which differ greatly from the more realistic proportions of the actual human figure.
Toward the end of the course, Ozmen practiced live sketches as a model posed for the class.
“You had to capture the general shape, not the exact measurements,” she explained. “We used body maps to learn fashion proportions. We also learned rendering fabric…taking a swatch of fabric to use in a design and showing its color and texture with marker.” Ozmen referenced completing this aspect of the design process with leopard-print fabric.
Because Oh-Ranck’s students create numerous sketches throughout the span of a course, certain materials are compulsory. Essential materials include fabric swatches, Tria markers, Prismacolor pencils, fashion watercolors, Bristol paper, tracing paper and, of course, the ever-necessary sketchbook.
Also required for enrollment in the Fashion Illustrations class is completion of the precursor course, Fashion Figure Drawing. The first day of Fashion Illustrations was allotted for learning how to draw a pose according to proportions, a concept stressed in the prerequisite Fashion Figure Drawing course.
After drawing the general pose, students progressed to using tracing paper to create several rough-sketch adaptations of the original sketch. Final sketches were composed on Bristol paper, a thicker, sturdier paper onto which the final work is transferred. Color is then applied by using watercolor, markers and pencil to detail the Bristol paper drawing.
During the lesson Oh-Ranck advised the fashion students to pay attention to details in their drawings before adding color. She taught proper use of drawing materials and demonstrated how to create skin tones by using markers. According to Oh-Ranck, using several media (watercolor base, marker and colored-pencil) is “always best.”
It is this type of advice which provides PCAD students with an early foundation in prospective college majors. “The instructor was great,” said Ozmen.
Ozmen also said the fashion course helped her become more artistically well-rounded.
“It really helps you learn how to draw fashion. I’m an art student and I draw all the time, but with fashion, you have to know that there are different body proportions. You don’t draw what you see, you capture the pose.” Ozmen cited live model drawing as the most challenging aspect of the fall course.
Although the non-credit courses are geared for the high-school student, Beyl believes that “… (the courses) are structured as college classes.”
The Fashion Design Collection course, which will be offered this summer at PCAD, exemplifies this difference in curriculum. Instead of being presented in three-hour sessions, this course, which entails producing actual garments, will be offered in 10 six-hour classes, twice weekly. According to Beyl, the PCAD summer classes’ lengthened duration “simulates the college course schedule.” Oh-Ranck will teach this future course as well.
During an early February Fashion Illustrations lesson, the fashion design instructor showcased previous students’ work. She spoke of inspiration, and its importance in fashion design. Students had begun the process of selecting the fabric swatches which they would use as inspiration for their designs.
“I love to teach,” said Oh-Ranck. “I see the progress, the obvious difference between the first day and the last…I help them to develop their skill. I give them information about schools to prepare them for college.”
“(Oh-Ranck) helped me a lot,” said Ozmen. The fall fashion course did not demand a final project; however, Ozmen themed an assignment for a school English class around fashion design. With Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” as her inspiration, she drew three wardrobe designs for a character of the novel.
“I brought it in to the fashion class so (Oh-Ranck) could help me,” said Ozmen.
The local high school student is interested in costume design for theater. The Fashion Figure Drawing course served as an outlet for her creativity. “Well, I really enjoyed coming up with designs, designing the clothing…actually drawing it out,” said Ozmen. “It was most expressive.”
