April Howard, M.F.A. Fashion Design
Birthplace: Hartford, Connecticut
Materials: stretch leather, silk twill

Before pursuing her M.F.A. at the Academy, April received a B.A. in Anthropology, A.A.S. in Textile/Surface Design, and worked professionally designing home, tabletop, giftware and linens for Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren. For this collection, she was inspired by the work of found objects sculptor Kathy Kelley, the decaying concrete and plastic of an urban wasteland, and Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road.” Her organic shapes and construction details are representative of discarded items. Leggings are made to look like molded foam. Slim pants like slashed tires.

For more info about our New York Fashion Week show, click here.

Remember to keep Friday, September 3rd open! Legendary British fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, CBE will be joining Gladys Perint Palmer for her presentation on the Paris Haute Couture Fall ’10 / Winter ’11 collection starting at 3:30 p.m. at Morgan Auditorium (491 Post Street).

Zandra will share her photos, inspiration, and design process for the costumes she created for the 2010 opening season of the San Francisco Opera’s Aida.

This past Sunday, Gladys went the the technical rehearsal for Aida to visit Zandra and her gorgeous designs — here she is hard at work:

And here is Gladys Perint Palmer and Zandra Rhodes after the rehearsal. As you can see, they are still hanging in there!

This week for our Who’s That? contest, I’m going to do something a bit different. I am going to give you three pictures and you have to find the person (in this case, a guy) that links them all together. When you guess, please give us a full explanation of how the pictures are related to the guy. It’s pretty much the exact opposite in what we’ve been doing.

Got it? Good. Here are the three visual clues:

Remember to tell us how the guy in question is related to these pictures — and stay tuned for the answer on Friday!

Denman Island in British Columbia was discovered at the end of the Eighteenth century.

It is the size and shape of Manhattan with about a thousand inhabitants. It is hard to be precise; the most confusing date on the island’s calendar is Father’s Day.

The old timers whose forefathers arrived before the motorcar, look on the invasion of Seventies draft dodgers with amused tolerance.

The dodgers, now ancient anarchists, do not believe in change, and regard newer arrivals, who do believe in indoor plumbing, with deep suspicion.

Then there are some very special folks.

Michael Dennis arrived on Denman from San Francisco in 1980. He was not running away from war but escaping from a brilliant career (Stanford PHd in Neuropsychology, Harvard instructor, University College London Research Fellow, U.C. San Francisco Professor of Psychology).

He and members of his family acquired 160 acres, then for three years Michael Dennis built his own house – which led to sculpture.

Today, his work may be admired by many, and afforded by few, all over the world and most especially at 3760 Lake Road on Denman Island.

Well worth a visit.

In my sculpture over time I have gravitated to less and less detail of feature which allows the viewer greater freedom to read in whatever details they wish for their own interpretations.

I explore that fine line between figuration and abstraction which line probably differs with each viewer.

Follow the jump for more images and quotes from Michael Dennis.
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Here are some photos of our Surface Techniques class. We learned embroidery as well as tie-dye & a method called batik (a method in which you apply wax to the surface of the fabric prior to the dying process and then boil the wax out.)

We just finished this class this past Friday! It’s so exciting to be done with one class — but I am so exhausted. For our final in that class we had to do 4 creative swatches (in about 2 days!) We needed to incorporate at least two techniques we learned throughout the class.

For more pictures, follow the jump.
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The famous New York Dandy Patrick McDonald (who is also a front row staple at our New York Fashion Week Show) was recently featured in a book illustrated by Jim Howard titled “Four Famous Dandies” which puts him next to punch-out versions of the dandies of yore Beau Brummell, Oscar Wilde, and the Duke of Windsor.

This is pretty darn cool! What better way to reincarnate the enjoyment of paper dolls? Who says print is a dying art?

Sources: SFLuxe.com, PaperStudioPress.com

On Friday, September 17th BFA and MFA students will present garments in a fashion show at the de Young Museum’s event “Mexico 2010″ which will honor the country’s artistic creativity. Here’s a preview of the garments that will be featured:

The event is a part of the museum’s “Friday Night Soirées” programming so make sure you keep Sept. 17th open (from 5 to 8:45 p.m.) For more info the de Young museum’s website. Did we mention the event is free?

The lovely lady shown here is Nati Abascal (who is dressed in Lanvin, by the way). She was a cover girl for Bazaar in the ’60s and was a muse for Valentino. She also starred in Woody Allen’s film Bananas in 1971. She has also worked as a stylist for Hola! magazine. According to Wikipedia, her full name is Natividad Abascal y Romero-Toro — which is a mouthful. Good thing she shortened it. Here’s another pic of her for you to marvel at:

Congrats to our own Gladys Perint Palmer for answering and to Sarah Baker for getting most of the clues right!

Stay tuned for next week’s beloved round of Who’s That?

On Friday, September 3rd 3:30pm Gladys Perint Palmer will report on the Haute Couture Fall ’10 / Winter ’11 collections in Paris – her photos, her observations, her illustrations at Morgan Auditorium (491 Post Street).

As an added bonus, special guest and legendary British fashion designer, Zandra Rhodes, CBE will be visiting our fashion school and joining Gladys for the presentation. She will share her photos, inspiration, and design process for the costumes she created exclusively for the 2010 opening season of the San Francisco Opera’s Aida.

A Monday morning tweet from Fashionologie.com told me that Anna Wintour owns an iPad. I was flummoxed because fashion and technology do not always go together. The best interpretation of this relationship is when Samantha Jones handed her iPhone to Carrie Bradshaw in which she replies “I don’t know how to work this,” on her wedding day in Sex and The City the movie.

Follow the jump to read more.
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