CHARACTER BUILDING Alumna Cynthia Kirkland makes magic at Disney, creates geek couture
PHOTO © GLORIA HASLER, @ChrysalisTravel
BY L E I G H TO N C A R R U T H
Cynthia Kirkland ’12 (middle) takes a bow after winning the Judge’s Choice Award at the Her Universe Fashion Show at Comic-Con 2018.
“I wanted the jurors to be wowed by the ambition from the beginning.”
“I remember thinking, ‘This is it! This is what I’ve been looking for!’” Cynthia Kirkland ’12 rarely just watches a movie. She is always on the lookout for that spark of inspiration, a jumping off point for her next creation. After she decided to grab a co-worker and head to a showing of The Shape of Water on the very last day it was in Orlando theaters, she knew that she had it. “I’d been sketching for months and thinking, and I saw the movie, came home, and knew that I’d hit it at the right time,” she says. Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water ended up winning four Oscars, and Kirkland walked out of the theater that day with the
nugget of her own award-winning design. A talented artist and costumer, Kirkland translated the film’s love story into an intricately detailed couture gown for the Her Universe Fashion Show at Comic-Con last July. Designers across the nation applied to be in the show, and out of the 24 finalists who presented on stage in San Diego, Kirkland came away with the Judges’ Choice Award. Though thrilled with her win, Kirkland says that the biggest take-away from the experience is sharing a bond with her fellow designers and creators. “Even though it’s a competition, this fashion show is relatively low drama. They foster the idea of community, and bringing us CONTINUED
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MARY BALDWIN MAGAZINE
