located in a small apartment on the Rue du Parc Royal, where influential editors and buyers came to see his expertly tailored body-contouring garments. “Azzedine and I clicked immediately and we enjoyed working with each other,” adds Théallet of the designer, who offered her a full-time position at the end of her summer internship. “I declined his offer because I had my heart set on working for Jean Paul Gaultier, whose designs seemed more exciting to me at the time,” she says, noting that upon hearing this Alaïa helped her get a position at Gaultier. Considered one of the most avant-garde designers working in Paris, Gaultier entrusted her with developing knitwear in collaboration with his team, which included the noted Belgian designer Martin Margiela. “Gaultier was my first real job and he taught me how to work with color, build the narrative of a collection, and to be fearless when it came to trusting my instincts,” says the French designer, who remained with Gaultier for three years before Alaïa lured her back to work with him. Initially agreeing to stay for a month, she would become his trusted right hand for over a decade. “Looking back now, I realize I went to Gaultier because I wasn’t mature enough yet to work for Azzedine. It took time for me to get to that point and appreciate what he was doing,” says Théallet, who assisted Alaïa with client fittings, an intimate process that would inform the way she would design clothes for women. “Azzedine’s clients were part of his creative process and he loved tailoring clothes for women with curves. Those client fittings taught me how to adapt a design to suit different body types,” adds Théallet, who has long
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promoted body positivity in the fashion industry by featuring plus-size models on her runway and Ad campaigns. When Théallet launched her label in 2007, it swiftly garnered critical acclaim from noted fashion editors and store buyers for an approach to design that didn’t scream, so much as whisper a quiet understanding and passion for tailoring and couture techniques. “We started out in our living room in Brooklyn Heights with little money, one seamstress and a patternmaker,” says the designer, who went on to win the prestigious CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award two years later, dress First Lady Michelle Obama, and create a shoe line with Manolo Blahnik. For her first show during New York Fashion Week, she chose to present her Spring 2009 collection on a cast of all Black models. It was a bold statement, at a time when few designers were using models of color on their catwalks. For Spring 2017, the designer titled her campaign Global Citizen, in response to xenophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric. “We live in an age where identity is fluid, yet people are still being placed in boxes. I wanted to feature women who inspire me, by pushing against conventional notions of beauty, identity and what it means to be a global citizen today,” notes the designer, whose commitment to diversity and inclusion has continued throughout her career. The conversation eventually came back to 2018, when Théallet and her husband made a radical decision. That year, they closed their studio in New York and moved to Montreal, where they set about reimagining a new kind of ethical luxury brand. Its mission is to counter passive consumption through ethically sourced materials, limited production, and selling directly to customers through a dedicated online platform. The result is ROOM 502, named after their first home at the Chelsea Hotel. For its debut
collection, Théallet produced a series of dresses in timeless silhouettes, that are meticulously tailored from the finest ethically sourced cotton. To produce their line, the couple teamed up with the craftsmen of the Kalhath Institute in Lucknow, India. Founded by Maximiliano Modesti, Alaïa’s former studio manager, its mission is to preserve India’s traditional textiles and embroidery crafts, while providing a living wage to its artisans. For Théallet, shifting gears to this way of working was not simply a response to accelerated production schedules and costly fashion shows. “This is my statement of independence. A beautifully executed garment, in design and workmanship, doesn’t need to be bound by trends. I wanted to remove the artifice of fashion, by taking the time to focus on what I learned in Paris,” says the designer, whose approach to ethical consumption has gained her a following among diverse women, from Meghan Markle, the duchess of Sussex, to Rula Jebreal, the journalist and humanitarian. It is a model of working that seems counterintuitive to the current fashion system, yet Théallet is adamant about doing things her way. That point of view comes into sharp relief on her last day at SAIC’s Fashion department. After sharing her journey with students during a talk at the Fashion Resource Center, she takes questions and listens to their concerns about how to navigate an evolving fashion industry without a clear roadmap. “We live in an age where things are going to change in a big way, and I believe it’s the coming generation of young designers who will have the answers. This is why I continue to be a tenacious optimist, because it’s in times of chaos that positive change can happen.”
Students
Thank You
SOPHOMORES
JUNIORS
SENIORS
Juanny Alcaraz Victoria Bi Rose BizubRodriguez Andrew Bohlin Mengqi Chen Bella Chen Alyssa Cheng Ra Dehan Iyomi Ho Ken Ariana Hocking Jiayi Huang Lingjue Huang Shelby Hubbard Eri Iso Haley Janecyk Tae Min Jeong Heewon Kim Casey Knepley Aatika Kothawala Maaria Kothawala Jieun Ku Margaux Laibe Julianna Lee Loken Lee Rever Li Xintan Li Matilda Liang Chia-Yu Lin Jixian Liu Daria Mostek Colette Obermaier Rose Okamura Sino Park Lily Parker Goldie Schmiedeler Chiyuan Sun Katie Svehla Ellie Tie Tong Tong Ru Tsai Mette Ulland Yiwei Wang Hayden Wentworth Emily Workman Haotian Xu Ziyi Yang Xiaofeng Zhou Ben Zumbrun
Sarp Akdag Faviola Anaya Esquivel Eliana Batsakis Frida Benitez Cat Derousse Wonho Do Tara Froehlich Gianna Gaspar Av Grannan Helen Gu Nic Holmberg Sherry Hu Grant Karpin Bora Kim Dawson O'Keefe Adela Ramirez Lorea Román Kendall Schamel Jiawei Shao Michelle Suh Hope Vaughan Yiyan Wang
Alexandra Avery Isabella Blewett-Raby Jacqueline Difilippo Ellis Erisman Myia Esper Madeline Felauer Lisa Gaedike haley goldberg L Olivier Hawley Nishka Jiandani Alexa Kudra Rachel Martini Jordan Quant Sofiia Slynko Edna St. Louis Dante Villalobos Valeria Watson Myung Hyun Woo Myra Xu
G R A D UAT I N G JUNIORS
Heather Morales Holly Richwine Yinyi Liu (Effie)
P O S TB AC C A L AU R E AT E
The Department of Fashion Design gives special thanks to: MP Factor Bridget Halanski Jesse Abudayyeh James Prinz (MFA 1988) Fashion Photography Bob Faust, Publication Design Jeff Nolan, Video Editing Heiji Choy Black CFDA Driehaus Design Initiative Luminarts Cultural Foundation Luminarts Cultural Foundation Graduate Fellowship in Fashion sponsored by Kimberly Palmisano Luminarts Cultural Foundation Undergraduate Fellowship in Fashion sponsored by Cherilyn Murer Uniqlo Kimiyo Naka York Fur Kathy Rezny Fur Information Council of America Nicole Smith and Keith Kaplan
Bo Pang
SAIC Fashion Photography class Adjunct Assistant Professor Don Yoshida and Senior Lecturer Mayumi Lake (BFA 1997, MFA 2000)
MASTER OF DESIGN
SAIC Office of the President
Jiajia Bao Ellington Bramwell Brennan Brower Marina Chen Isaac Couch Agnes Hamerlik Yichen Li Alex Sun Yan Yang Ruijie Gao Ashlee Gines Kim Kim Alisa Maiboroda Yuyun Su Daniela Triana Mayorga María Antonia Villaseñor-Marchal Baoqi Xie Ning Yang
SAIC Office of the Provost SAIC Office of the Dean SAIC Office of Institutional Advancement SAIC Instructional Resources and Facilities Management Katharine Schutta (BFA 1986, MFA 1989), director of Career and Professional Experience Christina Gomez, Professor, SAIC Professor, SAIC Department of Liberal Arts, Director of Academic Affairs for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Bree Witt, Director of Communications Sophie Théallet Staff Credits Jimmie Swaggerty Senior Administrative Director Lucky Stiff Administrative Assistant Dolly Robertson Instructional Facility Assistant Director, Fashion Design Facilities Jelisa Brown Instructional Facility Supervisor, Fashion Design Facilities
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