Alumni

FIDM DEBUT on Cover of California Apparel News

Authored by FIDM Fashion Design Co-Chair Nick Verreos, the cover story of the January 22, 2021 edition of California Apparel News highlights the challenges of producing a full-scale virtual fashion show in the Covid era. In his article, Verreos shares how FIDM was able to safely share the designs of graduating students in the Fashion Design and Theatre Costume Design Advanced Study programs, as well as work from Interior Design, Digital Media, and Textile Design students. 

Typically, the DEBUT Runway Show would be held at Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport as part of a world-class three-day event that attracts nearly 10,000 people. In March of 2020, as the designers conducted their final model fittings and seating charts were being selected, California enacted a shutdown in response to the growing Covid-19 pandemic. Upon hearing DEBUT would be cancelled and possibly rescheduled at a later date, the designers were devastated. 

“As the pandemic worsened, it seemed evident that hosting a physical DEBUT show at the scale of past events would be unfeasible, so everything was put on hold,” Verreos wrote for the publication. “The entire time, however, we still held out hope that somehow we could do it so the students would finally have their show.” After seeing the Spring/Summer 2021 Valentino show online, Verreos realized FIDM could take a similar approach.

Held at the Cooper Design Space in downtown LA, the show was filmed with a skeleton crew and numerous safety regulations over several days and edited into a one-hour show that can be streamed on YouTube. While not the traditional DEBUT of the past, the pandemic forced the FIDM community to get extra creative, which led to thousands of people from around the world being able to virtually attend DEBUT.

Categories:  Advanced Fashion Design Alumni