09 07 2014 San Francisco Chronicle

Epicenter: Tupperware 3.0: Direct sales get a tech makeover.

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The Looker: Levi’s, 49ers team up for jacket collection.

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Style Pairings: A match made in fashion heaven.

Page 10 Observed: From Brooklyn to bonding over bespoke doughnuts.

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J6 | Sunday, September 7, 2014 | SFChronicle.com and SFGate.com

SFChronicle.com and SFGate.com | Sunday, September 7, 2014 |

J7

COVER STORY FA S H I O N S C H O O L S

F A S H I O N I N C U B AT O R O F S A N F R A N C I S C O

CLASS OF 2014 — SHOW TIME STEPHANIE BODNAR, AMERICAN OF UKRAINIAN DESCENT, EVGENIA LINGERIE

DAHAE KIM, KOREAN, A-DIKTION MENSWEAR

By Tony Bravo

Vision: The duality of strength and delicacy, like silk (and women).

Homeland inspiration: “I love the history of the American 1920s and the Prohibition era of the ’30s. The flappers, they had so much style.”

Unexpected details: French Valenciennes lace inserted by hand onto silk crepe de chine; hand-sewn ribbon corsets with delicate silver grommets; hand-finished hems; striking digital floral fabric.

See more: www.iamevgenia.com (pronounced ev-gen-yah)

Vision: Designed for the man who may have a desk job but wears skull buttons.

Homeland inspirations: “I grew up in a military family and I was influenced by the uniforms. Even when my collection seems casual, I have at least an accent of structure somewhere in the outfit.”

Unexpected details: Tiny silver skull buttons on the bottom of a white shirt; double-layered jacket with a hidden half vest; a pant engineered to self-ruche from the knee down.

More: www.whichkim.com

Macy’s Passport Glamorama, “Fashion Rocks”: 8 p.m. Friday.

Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St., S.F. Singersongwriter Jason Derulo headlines the annual fundraiser for AIDSrelated charities. Tickets start at $89. Go to www.macys.com/glam tickets for information.

AN EYE FOR THE NEWEST TREND In fall 2012, when this reporter spoke to fashion students at City College of San Francisco, the aesthetic mood of the class was clear.

Both sexes were overwhelmingly dressed in modern takes on ’90s grunge: Piled-on flannel for boys, combat boots with slip dresses for girls were reinvented in great, design-conscious ways. In 2013, grunge was revived by Hedi Slimane at the famed house of Saint Laurent, then absorbed into the fashion mainstream. By then, the students had moved on: Chic sweats and varsity gear were starting to emerge at City College, as they would later on runways.

“There’s always trickle-up from the street,” observes Diane Green, who chairs the college fashion department. “Programs like ours encourage an environment where creativity is explored in students’ personal style and work. It makes sense that they’re incubating trends.”

In the world of fashion forecasting — predicting upcoming color, fabric and overall style trends based on cultural indicators and past consumer data — it’s not unusual for students in fashion and design programs to offer early indicators where the collective aesthetic is heading. San Francisco’s plethora of schools with such programs makes it not only a destination for creative types but also a great (and frequently overlooked) trend forecasting city. If you want a preview of the runways in New York and beyond, look to the schools’ spring fashion shows, where the most forward-looking students are rewarded by panels of industry veterans with scholarships, internship possibilities and, frequently, employment.

“Recently, I’ve seen a lot of manipulation of proportion and illusions of draping,” says Amy Williams, chair of California College of the Arts fashion design program, of student styles. “Rick Owens just showed a collection with similar themes. Watching students refine that kind of personal experimentation in the fashion show is always rewarding.”

Erick Lopez, a CCA graduate and winner of the school’s 7x7 It is the nature of Emerging Designer award, is one fashion programs’ student whose collection Williams sees as having benefited training that allows from this process. “Erick’s perstudents to tap in to sonal experimentation with dimensions gave the final collecthe undercurrent. tion its perspective,” she says of Lopez’s sporty, voluminous menswear. After the show, Lopez relocated to Cleveland to accept a job as assistant men’s designer at Abercrombie & Fitch.

Yuko Okudaira, a 2014 Academy of Art University fashion design graduate and the recipient of a summer internship at Missoni in Milan and a scholarship to Studio Bercot in Paris, mentions the recent sneaker revival as an early trend among fashion students at AAU. Hersha Steinbock, who teaches fashion merchandising, recalls a line at an AAU retail event featuring skull and tattoo prints and a collection of deconstructed T-shirts that were “so ahead of the curve” as other examples of students’ forward viewpoints. The graffitied, fringed pieces Okudaira presented in the spring were inspired by teenage skater style in the mural-heavy alleys of the Mission District.

Sam Shan, a 2014 graduate of the fashion program at City College, saw the rise of both grunge and jock styling in the department but now cites cutouts and sheer fabrics as possible future trends. In addition to winning the City College scholarship to AAU at the spring fashion show, Shan is collaborating on dress designs for Betabrand.

More than any kind of youthful clairvoyance, it is the nature of fashion programs’ training that allows students to tap in so fully to the cultural undercurrent of what’s just about to rise to the forefront.

“Trends can incubate and disseminate anywhere and any time,” Steinbock says. “It is the ability of our students, guided by the faculty, that allows us both as a collective tribe and individual tastemakers to recognize trends in their earliest stages.”

Fashion Incubator of SF designers Dahae Kim (left), Anna Min, Amanda Scarlett Smith, Stephanie Bodnar and Lia Larrea.

Russell Yip / The Chronicle

ANNA MIN, AMERICAN OF KOREAN DESCENT, MIN-EDITION, WOMENSWEAR FOR PETITES Vision: Petites deserve better than shrunken-down designs.

Homeland inspiration: “I’m my own mannequin. A lot of petites, especially Asians, have longer torsos and shorter legs, like me.”

Unexpected details: Pin-tucked pleats on a drapey pant; hidden pleat on the back of a dress; bold but not overwhelming graphic prints; T-shirt with silk front and sporty striped jersey back.

See more: www.min-edition.com

A look from Amanda Smith’s spring 2015 collection.

Billy Winters

By Sylvia Rubin

They’ve logged in the hours at the sewing machines. There were bad days and great days and, finally, one day when it all came together. For five promising designers in the Fashion Incubator of San Francisco, it’s show time.

This week, samples from their springsummer 2015 lines go up in the Macy’s Union Square windows. Their work will also be featured on the red carpet at Macy's Glamorama fashion show on Friday.

The incubator, sponsored by Macy’s San Francisco, mentors five to six designers each year. Now in its third year, the non-

AMANDA SMITH, BRITISH, SCARLETT SMITH WOMENSWEAR

LIA LARREA, ECUADORAN, LIA LARREA WOMENSWEAR

Vision: Poised, powerful and purposeful.

Homeland inspiration: “My cutting and draping techniques are very influenced by having worked with (the late) Alexander McQueen in London.”

Unexpected details: Quality Japanese fabrics; expert interior construction; sculpted satin petal-like pockets; circular seaming; juxtaposition of matte and shiny fabrics; sharp and soft tailoring.

See more: www.scarlett-smith.com

Vision: Tall, toned, tailored and together.

Homeland inspiration: “I did a wrap skirt you can also wear as a poncho, and my slanted seams are inspired by the hills of Quito.”

Unexpected details: High-low tank with crew-neck leather front, cut-in shoulders and low-scoop ponte knit back; rounded, seamless shoulders on a blouse; angled pockets; hidden buttons; leather/twill combinations.

See more: www.lialarrea.com (coming soon)

From Dahae Kim’s spring/ summer 2015 line of menswear, Whichkim.

Clay Kerri

profit (www.fashionincubatorsf.org) has been nominated for an Ebbie — a San Francisco Chamber of Commerce award for innovative new businesses. “We’ve launched 15 new businesses since our inception,” says FISF Executive Director Jeanne Allen, and with that “comes employment for hundreds of local individuals like cutters, sewers, shippers, models and photographers.”

The current FISF class has strong international ties, expert sewing skills and confidence to spare. Here’s a quick look at their work, available for sale early next year.

Sylvia Rubin is a Berkeley freelance writer. E-mail: style@sfchronicle.com

A design from womenswear designer Lia Larrea’s lookbook.

Yuko Okudaira, a 2014 Academy of Art University fashion design graduate, is the recipient of a summer internship at Missoni in Milan.

Clay Kerri Randy Brooke