SPOTLIGHT: Project East

A charity effort at heart, Project East was first conceived by Timothy M. Parent ’09 and Kristin S. Kim ’09 three years ago. The runway show aims to expose Harvard students to cutting-edge fashion by featuring established Asian designers and student designers who attend Parsons School of Design or Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). By donating the proceeds of the event to benefit the China Tomorrow Education Foundation, Project East will help build a school in rural China. Organized by executive producers Tamara Harel-Cohen and Alexandra Clarke, Project East will take place November 14, in the Northwest Labs.

The Harvard Crimson: What is the inspiration for this year’s show in particular, and how does it differ from previous years?

Tamara Harel-Cohen: The previous two years Project East was held in tents with a raised runway. This year there will not be a formal runway—it will have a warehouse, industrial vibe, but a lot of the clothes we have are playful, resort collections. Two collections will have girls walking barefoot, so it will be a flirty feel. Our logo is red flowers so we are trying to bring that into the space—there will be a lot of flowers around and on the runway to create a floral, industrial chic feel.

Alexandra Clarke: The tent was a really cool idea, but it wasn’t very practical. Many people ruined their shoes last year. The Northwest Labs is actually a cool modern artistic gallery/warehouse space. Since we don’t have to pay as much as we had to for the tents, we have extra money to do lighting, set design, a cooler runway space, chairs, and to create a very professional-looking show.

THC: Can you speak a little about the process of requesting designers to contribute pieces for the show? Who in particular did you get this year?

TC: Half of the show is established names. This year we have Vera Wang, Derek Lam, Guiliano Fujiwara, and Andrew Gn, who are four of the biggest names in the industry. We always invite edgy, young designers. The other half of the show is composed of student designers. We invited 10 designers from Parsons and two RISD designers. We want the audience to look at the clothes and say, “Wow I never knew you could do that with clothes.” There are some really wild things. The bigger names are less avant-garde in their designs, so it’s nice to have the students who can take risks in their designs and mix it with what you see in stores.

THC: What were some of the biggest challenges this year?

TC: Basically, it’s been really hard this year because designers have been really hit by the economy. A lot of designers didn’t have their own runway shows, so it was hard to persuade them to lend out their clothes for a charity show.

AC: It has been really tough this year. Last year we got a huge grant from Macy’s, and this year they have been really helpful, but they just couldn’t give us the grant. We really had to re-evaluate the show and decide what to keep. As a result we cut our budget so much that we’ll probably raise double what we did last year... We’re getting the space [in Northwest Labs] for a steal, but it was somewhere we always wanted to do in spite of the budget cuts.

THC: What relevance does this show have to students at Harvard?

AC: We really try to emphasize the students in every aspect—the photographers, the models, etc. After the show, we send the designers pictures, so it’s really great to have these photographers get exposure. We’ve tried to strengthen our relationship with Harvard, and we’re going to become an official student organization in the spring.

TC: And I feel that this is the one show on campus that is only about fashion. We have a charitable purpose, which is very important, but the fashion really separates it from the other shows. It’s not about performance or who models but the clothes themselves.