About the Designer

I was a part of a “design team” with a few other people and the collective goal was to work together to create cohesive looks to test our capabilities of working towards a VDR brand itself. This was unique because of collaboration efforts between multiple designers for some of the looks. It was difficult because as designers we get used to having our own brand and style that we gravitate toward, so we had to set that aside and take feedback from each other to accomplish this. Whether this goal has been achieved or not won’t be determined until the show and having the looks together on the runway, so the audience will be able to decide if it was a success or not. Regardless, every experience is a learning opportunity, so no matter what happens we have all continued to hone our skills and try something a little different from what we are used to.

About Design One

My first design, “composition with black, silver, and white,” is a blend of two iconic 1960’s themes. The first theme is derived from “space race fashion” which consisted of geometric shapes and styles. The second theme is mod fashion, which took inspiration from different art pieces which were then implemented in clothing. The particular art piece I used for inspiration was the Piet Mondrian “Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow,” which what turned into a print for some mod fashions. VDR as a brand classically uses monochromatic colors, specifically gray scale, so for this look I used the gray scale to stay “on brand” and add a modern twist to this revival fashion.

About Design Two

The second design, simply called Apollo 1, was also inspired both from 60’s fashion and, most importantly, is a nod to the Apollo 1 mission in January 27, 1967 from Cape Canaveral (née Cape Kennedy from 1963-1973). This was not the launch date, but rather the preflight test in which Apollo 1 would be first crewed Apollo flight. Unfortunately, the crew was killed on the launchpad due to a fire breaking out in the command module (more information at: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/apollo-1/). This look is a powerful reminder to the show theme of “industrialization” and a reminder to historical sacrifices made during Space Race. As a refresher, the Space Race was the term used to describe the ambition to get to the moon before the Soviet Union. This drove many technological advances, hence having a significant effect on the world and boundaries of what is possible.

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As for the design itself, the jacket is white with a high collar to loosely reflect on the “astronaut suit.” An Apollo 1 patch was sewn to the left chest of the jacket both to visually interpret the meaning behind the look, but also to give a nod to Grissom, White, and Chaffee. The skirt is a basic a-line skirt (in which a-line was a popular 60s style) made of silver fabric. The headpiece of this look references the constellations and moon from the evening of January 27, 1967 to tie all the components of this design together.

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Find more details about Whitney and the brand via Instagram @wj.fashion.designs and YouTube via WJDesigns