Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY

Something exciting is taking shape in the name of fashion at The Storm King School. It all began earlier this year during Spring Arts Weekend which took place on April 20 – 23. That’s when Visual and Performing Arts Chair John Carruthers organized a workshop on entrepreneurship presented by a well-known New York City fashion designer. The workshop was so well-received by our students and the school community, he invited the speaker to come back again this year. In fact, ‘fashion’ has become the word at Storm King. This fall, there’s a great line-up of on and off-campus events focusing on design, entrepreneurship, and college placement with the fashion industry in mind.

 

 

To get things started, Mr. Carruthers formed the Fashion Club, an informal club for students interested in fashion and the arts. He is also working in close cooperation with the College Counseling Office to bring many well-known art and design schools to campus, and take interested students to as many portfolio events and open houses off-campus as possible.

 

 

On Tuesday, September 26, Ms. Carmela Spinelli, the Director of Global Initiatives for SCAD (Savannah College for Art & Design), met with students in the Art Center for an afternoon workshop on Branding & Communications in the Fashion Industry. The workshop focused on concept development and creative thinking for famous fashion brands and aimed to give the students a glimpse of one of the many ways their interest in fashion can turn into a career. The students were also asked to think of their own brand concept and create a short, visual scenario that could later be developed into a form of visual communication for their brand. Ms. Spinelli hopes to return to Storm King in the coming months for Part 2 of the workshop, where she will ask the students to develop, execute and present their brand concepts.

 

 

That same week, fabric and fashion designer and entrepreneur Mariya Kelly came back to Storm King on Thursday, September 28, after her first visit during Spring Arts Weekend. During her colorful slide presentation, Ms. Kelly shared her career experiences with the students, and helped them to learn how to define their career path as a creative entrepreneur by analyzing their talents and goals.

 

 

The fashion fun and learning continue this month. On Sunday, October 4, Mr. Carruthers is taking a fashion-minded group of his students to an open house at Parsons School of Design in New York City, and the Fashion Club will travel to the Conde Nast Building in New York City on Friday, October 13, to visit Mic.com, a contemporary news and current events website which caters to millennials. Evan Ross Katz, who is the style editor for the website, will work with our students to prepare them for a video interview for Mic.com.