Mariah Groves (right) with Walter Van Beirendonck

Mariah Groves is not only a familiar name to the Academy of Art University’s Industrial Design department, but also to the spring 2010 fashion show where many of her jewelry designs were showcased. Groves, who graduated in 2009 and likes to work with metal, plastic — and even foam — has since interned for Walter Van Beirendonck and continues to create her own collections. Fashion School Daily caught up with the alum to learn about her internship, her current designs, and what’s to come from the designer.

You showed many different collections in the Academy of Art University Fashion Show in Spring 2010, which collection did you like best?

I am really most proud of my laser cut neon acrylic pieces which were paired with Melody Bainter’s collection. I feel that those pieces truly showcased my combined background of industrial design and jewelry design in form, material and production methods.

How was your internship with Walter Van Beirendonck? What did you do?

Working for a fashion designer when you did not study fashion design in school is quite the eye opening experience! Literally everything was a new challenge every day from working with fabrics to running errands in a new and very different city. For the first month, I worked on a variety of tasks to help get ready for the show in Paris, from creating fabric color cards for the showroom to helping to make the client books. I then went to Paris and finally got to see everything come together in the runway show, which was very exciting and fulfilling. The last two months were spent on research and concept design for sunglasses Walter designed for Linda Farrow.

Follow the jump to read more.

Read more…

On Sunday, Walter-philes put on their most outrageous garments made by Walter Van Beirendonck to watch a re-staging of his Spring-Summer 2010 Collection “WONDE®” at the Berkeley Art Museum.

Walter and Dirk Van Saene (in case you forgot, both were special guests at our graduation fashion show) were gushing about the professionalism exuded from the members of our fashion club, Beyond the Front Row; who helped dress the burly bears that went down the runway in looks stamped with the esoteric “W” of Walter.

It was quite an event and if you weren’t there, then you should be kicking yourself right now — but lucky for you, we have some video footage of the show — including a PG-13 underwear finale:

In addition to the many, many, many awards and internships that Suzy Menkes announced (pictured above) after a stellar graduation fashion show, some of our special guests gave offered internship opportunities to some of our students. Check out who got offered what by whom in the list (and a snazzy slideshow of the recipients) below:

Menswear designer, Patrik Ervell: Anette Nyseth (BFA Fashion Design) and Melody Bainter (BFA Fashion Design).

Ian Hannula and Joe Haller from Nice Collective: Jackie Nguyen (BFA Technical Design) and Ryan Kuan (MFA Merchandising).

Carol Lim and Humberto Leon from Opening Ceremony: Ronnie O. Nery (BFA Knitwear Design), Young Ae Koo (BFA Knitwear), and Alice Spies (BFA Fashion Design).

Elisa Palomino for Diane von Furstenberg: Amelia Statler (BFA Fashion Design), Stephanie Hoffmann (BFA Knitwear Design), Ghazaleh Khalifeh (BFA Fashion Design), Ivy Fu Man Tam (BFA Fashion Design), Eunice Cheng (BFA Fashion and Textile Design), and Yuzuan Cheng (BFA Fashion Design).

Walter Van Beirendonck: Mariah Groves (BFA Industrial Design).

All photos by Randy Brooke

The Academy of Art University’s fashion week passed in a blur of events, all of which I carefully blocked out on my semi-tacky Anne Taintor calendar. As I reflect on the week over a pot of coffee and spoonfuls of Nutella, I’m starting to realize that it’s the sweet, small moments that count.

The biggest of the “small” moments was participating in a roundtable discussion with Suzy Menkes and 5 of my fellow journalism students on Wednesday morning. Suzy’s engaging verbal command makes it feel like every word she divulges is an intimate secret. One of those secrets was that Madonna has been reading Suzy’s book The Windsor Style in preparation for an upcoming movie role as the Duchess of Windsor. Thank goodness I snatched the out-of-print book from the library before Gladys Perint Palmer shared our “secret” with the rest of the School of Fashion.

The next exciting small moment was being approached by Walter Van Beirendonck at the static show (the show before the big fashion show). I wrote about Walter in my very first published article (in One Eighty) so shaking Walter’s bauble-laden hand was a definite milestone. The only person more excited to shake Walter’s hand was the recipient of an unexpected internship he offered.

Finally, it was time to watch the show, which I got to share with my friend of the last 5 years, graduating designer Emma Erickson (who scored an internship with Hervé Léger.) She guided me through the show with encouraging commentary such as “You’ll like this collection… it’s what you’d buy if you could have whatever you wanted.”

But, for that moment, standing in the nosebleed section of the bleachers and witnessing the camaraderie and pats on the back between this year’s group of close knit graduating designers, I had everything I wanted.

Written by: Kalla Vieaux

Click here For more of ‘The Kalla Chronicles’

As you already know, Walter Van Beirendonck and Dirk Van Saene will be our special guests for our May show. As 1/3 of the Antwerp Six, the duo are influential designers — but let me back up a bit.

For those of you who don’t know who the Antwerp Six is, now is a better time than ever to find out. The Antwerp Six is a group of avant garde designers who graduated from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The six included Walter and Dirk (of course) as well as Ann Demeulemeester, Dries van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, and Marina Yee. The sextet of designers shared a radical and unique vision of fashion and have a cult following that rivals that of Justin Bieber. Read more…

We all know you have been waiting for it — so here it is; the OFFICIAL guest list for our 2010 Fashion Show! And despite some circulating rumors, John Paul Gaultier is not one of the guests. Don’t get us wrong, we do love him, but who started that rumor?

Nonetheless, here is the list. Drum roll please…

An Academy of Art University Honorary Doctorate will be presented to Suzy Menkes, OBE, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, and fashion editor of International Herald Tribune.

Academy of Art University President’s Awards for Excellence will be presented to:
· Julie Chaiken, Bay Area designer and founder of Chaiken Clothing
· Keanan Duffty, designer and author of ‘Rebel Rebel: Anti-Style’ by Rizzoli, 2009
· Patrik Ervell, winner of the 2007 Ecco Domani Award for best men’s wear designer
· Ian Hannula and Joe Haller, Bay Area designers and founders of Nice Collective
· Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, innovative retailers and founders of Opening Ceremony
· Elisa Palomino, women’s wear designer and VP of Design at Diane von Fürstenberg
· Walter Van Beirendonck, men’s wear designer and one of ‘The Antwerp Six’
· Dirk Van Saene, artist, designer and one of ‘The Antwerp Six’

Honored guests will announce internships at the end of the show. Other internships and awards to be announced include Abercrombie & Fitch, BCBG, SURTEX® designext Student Competition, and the Sister City Scholarship Exchange to study abroad in Paris at Studio Berçot and L’Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.

That’s quite a guest list, isn’t it? Stay tuned for symposiums and Q&As that you can attend.

In the meantime, check out this snazzy little slideshow of our guests:

In the latest issue of One Eighty, journalism student, Kalla Vieaux penned the article “The Cult of Walter” which features a band of merry men who adore the designer (who is 1/6th of the Antwerp Six) – one of them being merchandising student Jefery Jones.

Now when I say that Jefery adores Walter, I am serious. Very serious. If Walter was a religion, Jefery would probably be the pope. He has 50 pieces from Walter’s past collections and he tries to wear at least one piece a day.

“Wearing Walter makes me feel like a magic symbol-wielding shaman,” Jefery told Kalla. “I feel expressive and just plain happy.”

Unfortunately we weren’t able to fit any pictures of Jefery’s Walter wardrobe homage in the mag, but thanks to the Internet, we can fit all of them on our blog!

Follow the jump to view a slideshow of all of Jefery’s Walter looks. Read more…