FAD Vol2 No3 - AmpliFAD

The latest issue of FAD Magazine, the brainchild of xAZD, has been released! Below's the abbreviated version of the editors' letter:

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Welcome to AmpliFAD, the Music and Fashion issue! It’s a first time collaboration between Horace Mann’s music magazine, Amplified, and fashion, art, and design magazine, FAD. Many a fashion magazine will have its “Music Issue,” but this one is unique. These two magazines have combined in order to provide the school with the best representation of two creative forces. We have joined the visual aesthetic of FAD with the text-based culture of Amplified to create a potpourri of talents and passions.

Check it out online; it's embedded into this post just above!

This is Daphne, Zoe, and my last issue of FAD that we'll ever work on, seeing as we graduate from high school in 3 weeks! (I have yet to see Dazed + Confused...any other high-school-y movies you recommend I catch before the big day?) It was emotional and loads of fun, and as we said in the extended editors' letter, we left no regrets and no creative outlets unsatisfied as we pass the torch to our 11th grade successors. See the rest of FAD's issues online here.

Enjoy!
Alice + co.

FAD Vol2 No3 - AmpliFAD

Fashion Show

Daphne, Zoe, and I were some of the primary organizers of the Fashion Show Fundraiser Event, which FAD Magazine hosted in Horace Mann High School's Cohen Dining Commons on February 4th 2011. The evening also included raffles, a panel discussion with industry insiders (see the program for more information), and this fashion show. The event ended up being bigger than we could have imagined andtruly  successful, raising over $2,000 for the charity that we chose; The Northside Center for Child Development. See the event invite, which I designed, below.

FAD Fashion Show Gala Program (click to download, or view individual descriptions with look photos below)

The show was inspired by the the alphabet with each look representing one letter. Read below for details about the individual looks!

All below studio photographs by Andrew Catomeris, one of our official student photographers of the evening. Check out all of the other photos (backstage prep and runway) from the event on FAD's Facebook page.

I strongly encourage you to check out the official FAD website with the writeup and complete look book of the event. It was a genuinely fun, energetic evening and the photos display that in full! Below, photos of the looks I designed and/or helped to sew.

V: VERSATILE

 Model, Kia Hampson ’11. Concord velour top and ciffon shirt of three ruffled tiers, one of which snaps out to render this floor length gown into a knee-length party frock by Alice Taranto ’11 and Veronica Williamson ’13.

 

F: FEATHERS

 Model, Tucker Caploe ’11. Feather rugby-striped crewneck shirt, jeans are models own by Alice Taranto ’11 and Noah Margulis ’13.

A: ANGELIC

 Model, Frances Ikwuazom ’11. White dress with cotton sateen under a pleated chiffon layer by Veronica Williamson ’13, white chiffon shawl by Daphne Taranto ’11 and Alice Taranto '11.

L: LACE

Model, Katie Cacouris ’11. Mauve and concord ultra-suede motorcycle jacket and whisper pink with lace overlay skirt byAlice Taranto ’11 and Veronica Williamson ’13.

 My L look with S (Sophisticated Menswear). I spent so very many hours (upwards of 40 I would say) working on this jacket! It was my first-ever legit paper pattern project, and it's very complicated! Many thanks to all of my helpers...mom + dad + co....
The description of the S look:
Model, Steven-Louis Dreyfus ’12. White dress shirt with grey printed trim, and flower print ascot, pants are model’s own by Noah Margulis ’13.

 Katie backstage during makeup/hair prep.

My V with Y (Y-Neckline). The V dress sort of doubly represents a "V," as the neckline has a particularly V-esque shape, and the official meaning of Versatility. The dress totally works - the student model Kia snapped off the skirt's third tier on the end of the runway and walked backstage with it flung over her shoulder!

The description of the Y look:

Model, Florence Ngala ’13. Blue sateen, blue floral lace, and blue tulle gown by Zoe Kestan ’11.

 The final six models (U through Z) had copper leaf applied to their brows to highlight their bone structure on the runway.

 Love this shot by Lily Sands, another of our student photographers of the event, of student model Lauren Cantor '13 in the Z look, a pink velvet and snakeskin gown by Zoe Kestan ’11.

 One of the raffle prizes was a tour of the Teen Vogue NYC offices!

 On each chair was a copy of FAD, the evening program, and a gift bag with FAD chap stick, notebook, pen, and pin.

xx
Alice

p.s. Here is the look book from our fashion show 1 year ago!

Fashion Show

Image + Text

One has to submit three home tests as a part of the application for the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD, where I have just decided I will be attending next year!). One, a depiction of a bicycle (I will be posting that up soon). Two, use the front and back of a piece of paper (see my This/That). Three, to combine text and image - see my drawing below. 

My actual artist's statement:

Read and See, 16 x 20,” Graphite on Paper. December 2010. When I started considering the third prompt of combining image and text, I was reading the novel C by Tom McCarthy with my English class. A major motif of the book is ciphers and new WWI-era telecommunications, like Morse code. I find very interesting these visual, portable manifestations of the spoken word that can be “read” without the eyes. Upon more thinking about and research on this, I realized that if Morse is speaking through hearing, then Braille is speaking through touching. Braille is the quintessential combination of image and text - it combines message and a tangible image to create one means of communication for the blind or visually impaired. After reading about and then in Braille, I have really come to enjoy and appreciate, albeit on an amateur level, this dying language, its power, and its history. The image reads various parts of the following: “For the third sample, your visualization must combine image and text. You may approach these three drawings in any way you wish.” 

I used many websites' and non-profit organizations' information to help me with this project, including CBS Kids' Arthur, which has a site You've Got Braille (essentially a Braille translator. Very cool, see above.) Upon the recommendation from the site, I used Elmer's glue to make 3D glue-dots on top of the 2D Braille print-out from the website. That way, I actually was reading the "Braille" that I had translated with this site. Braille is extremely interesting; I recommend you read up on it and try to read some Braille yourself!

One of my biggest challenges in drawing is photorealism - it's really just not my thing. Often the perspective of my drawings will be even slightly incorrect and throw off the entire picture to the point that the wrongness of the perspective becomes distracting from whatever else is going on. In this drawing I really focused on getting the perspective just right - I did a lot of tracing, gridded overlays, computer work, and calculating (perhaps this was all overkill) to make sure it wasn't off. Above, see one rendering of the perspective: the black squares are each about 3 Braille characters wide, and the white gutters are the spaces between the characters. As you can see, the angle of the original photograph is very dynamic and the perspective shifts in every direction: left-right, front-back, diagonally, etc. (and the Braille dots themselves had to shift in darkness, width, and height to convince the eye that they are going back into space).

Above, the original photograph which served as the base of the drawing. Those are the hands of a boy from an art classroom next door to mine. I chose to use young hands because I thought they would be more interesting or thought-provoking than an older person's (who might have lost sight due to age). Some questions might be...why is this young person reading Braille? What happened to him? Etc.

I hope you enjoy it!
Have a great week,
Alice

p.s. Check out this blog in Blogger's new "views" options, like flipcard.

Image + Text