VDR Show - Virginia Tech 2024

Zoë Langford

Zoë Langford is from Virginia Beach. Zoë is majoring FMD and graduating in 2025.

Brand Design

No brand of my own but my IG is @iknowzoe where I may post my design or styling work.

Design One

The top is comprised of a heavily distressed knit long sleeve top as well as a distressed oversized one sleeve blazer. The bottoms are wide leg white canvas shorts. The shoes that he’s wearing are black tasseled loafers that I first painted with ivory acrylic paint, then glued muslin fabric flowers and scrap squares to the surface and repainted it over a 2nd time to add more texture.

Design Two

The base of this outfit is a simple ribbed tank top and the outer layer is a cropped blazer with a letter transcribed from a video of a Palestinian child talking about how he and his community have been affected by the war. The back of the blazer features handmade flowers from an old book fused with muslin, as well as flowers made from scrap fabric from the blazer. The embroidery in the back reads the poem “The rose that grew from concrete” by Tupac Shakur. The bottoms are distressed wide-leg light wash jeans.

Design Three

the dress is a bubble-style dress made from lightweight cotton fabric with multiple pleats and folds throughout the dress. The garment is also hand-beaded with small glass pearls; On the back there is a roughly 3.5 yard train with flowers sprouting from the train.

The shoes are knee-high leather boots. The same process that was used for the loafers in Ben’s outfit I also used on the boots for Sydney’s outfit, the only difference in the process is that for Sydney’s boots, the fabric is more textured lot mimic the draping that is present on her dress.

Design Inspiration

I was inspired by early Comme, Vivienne Westwood’s seditionaries, Yohji Yamamoto, and Margiela line 0. I played a lot with texture throughout the outfits and wanted the pieces to be simple but complex which is why I don’t use much color. My personal design style leans more towards deconstruction and reconstruction mixed with some punk elements and graphics. I’m a very theme-driven person so whatever I’m creating at the time will most likely have underlying themes referencing something. For example, the grey-cropped blazer reads “The rose that grew from concrete”, the poem explores themes of social injustice and persistence and beauty amidst adversity. This poem inspired this blazer as I wanted to show the resilience and strength of the Palestinian people to remain unbroken in the midst of their ongoing conflict. This reference is reflected in the cement coloring of the blazer along with the variety of flowers seemingly sprouting from the fabric on the back.