Fashion-‘East’-as Plan Show

We’ve all heard of Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, but less recognizable are names like Jen Kao, Mary Ping and Thuy. “Project East,” a fashion show organized by Timothy M. Parent ’09 and Kristin S. Kim ’09, will showcase Asian designers and aims to raise awareness of the thriving Asian fashion design scene.

The idea for “Project East,” which hits the runway tomorrow, was formulated in the summer of 2006 while Parent and Kim were in Korea.

“We happened to meet up [while in Korea] and started talking about how we had discovered so many cool Korean designers during our summer there,” Kim says. “We wondered why Asian designers don’t get as much exposure as European designers and decided to try to change that.”

EAST MEETS WEST

Kim and Parent compiled a list of professional designers of Asian descent and began trying to make contact, hoping designers would be receptive to participating in a fashion show at Harvard.

“We had to persuade everyone and convince them it was for real and that it was going to be a really professional-grade fashion show,” Kim says.

What followed was a month-long effort of online research, phone calls and inquiries at designers’ stores in Korea.

“We had criteria that included the designer having to be high-end and have had a showing at a fashion week like New York, Toyko or Paris,” Parent says. “The first call we got came from Issey Miyake, which is a very successful brand with beautiful stuff.”

The show will include seven collections from professional designers, including Gemma Kahng, Chris Han, and Twinkle by Wenlan, all of whom showed at New York Fashion Week.

“A common misconception is that this is an Asian fashion show that will feature things like interpretations of kimonos,” Kim says. “The point is that the designers are Asian, but the looks that they are presenting are just as western and modern as the other looks shown at Fashion Week.”

HELPING YOUTH

Also featured are seven collections from the Parsons The New School for Design’s class of 2007.

“The Parsons designers are showing their thesis collections that were submitted for their final grade, which means they are made impeccably well,” Kim says.

“Project East” will act as an avenue of exposure for the new designers and also as an effort to encourage Harvard students to get involved in fashion, the creators say.

“The fashion industry is so hard to survive in, and I really admire and support these people who stay true to what they want to do and don’t go into some alternative career,” Parent says.

Many of the Parsons designers’ collections will be included in a charity auction that will follow the show. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Confucius Foundation, which provides scholarships to child laborers working in sweatshops that produce fake luxury goods and allow them to attend school.

“Not only are we helping to give children an education, but we are also making sure there is less of a labor force for fake luxury goods, which is a terrible problem,” Parent says.

MODEL STUDENTS

The auction will also feature accessories and perfume donated by professional designers such as Issey Miyake and Alexander Wang.

The professional and Parsons designers’ collections will be modeled by students, both from Harvard and from other Boston area colleges.

“At the audition, a lot of people thought it was just another fashion show, but the models got really excited once we told them what it was all about,” Kim says.

Hannah Cho, a junior at Boston College, heard about the show through Kim and is a first-time fashion show model.

She recalls the logic behind her clothing choices: “We tried on all the different clothes to see which model could best show each piece of clothing so we can do the designers justice and raise as much money as possible.”

“Project East” will show on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. in the Radcliffe Quad. Tickets can be purchased at the Harvard Box Office.

—Staff writer Jessica X.Y. Rothenberg can be reached at jxyroth@fas.harvard.edu.