Images provided by Anya Haber
If you’re an interior design student, then chances are you’ve heard of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA). According to their website, “IIDA works to enhance quality of life through excellence in interior design and to advance interior design through knowledge, value, and community.”
Every year, the IIDA’s Georgia chapter hosts an event called “Dressed.” Teams are sponsored by interior design firms and are given fabrics and materials to make a garment that adheres to the event’s theme and given color palette. This event fosters a collaboration between two industries — interior design and fashion — and challenges both parties to utilize of their crafts in unconventional ways. The competition culminates at the annual “Dressed” fashion show, held at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. Models dance down the runway, showing off their choreographed movements set to the rhythm of their carefully-selected soundtrack. Music, runway movement, makeup and costume elements must all be cohesive with each team’s theme.
This year, Iman Khoury, a fourth-year interior design student, and Celeste Sample, a graduate interior design student, led the first student team to ever participate in “Dressed.” Other team members include interior designs students’ Crystal Martin, Yashna Garg and Elham Emami, interior design alumnus and “Dressed” model Delaram Tafreshian and fourth-year fashion student Anya Haber. The Connector got the chance to sit down with Khoury and Sample to discuss their experience.
The Connector: Why did you decide to participate in this competition? Did you want to challenge yourself to think of interior design elements in a nontraditional way?
Khoury: When I first heard about it, I was interested because I love high fashion and fashion photography. This year’s concept was “Color in (e)Motion” and the prompt for each team’s concept was the combination of a verb, an emotion and a Pantone color strip — each picked at random from a bucket. Ours were warp and grief, and they had already decided that the student team would use the Pantone neon color strip. That challenge in itself was interesting enough for me to do this project. There are also so many interesting materials in the interior design industry, so I thought it was a super clever way to merge the two fields.
Sample: This competition has become a vital link in our local industry. Vendors, fashion designers and interior designers all working together to push great products to their limits. This is a unique opportunity to show off the creativity needed in interiors, fashion, product design, sales and marketing. That’s why I wanted to be a part of this competition. To have an opportunity to experience that kind of work dynamic and see what amazing things we could create.
The Connector: Have you ever been interested in fashion?
Khoury: Oh yes. I hope I don’t offend anyone by saying how much I love America’s Next Top Model — I hate it when people compare interior design to HGTV — but I really do love the show. Mostly for the fashion photography and the runway shows with extreme garments, hair and makeup. Also, I’m a regular at second-hand stores, even when I really don’t need any more clothes.
The Connector: Were there any materials that you used that you weren’t familiar with? Or what was the most interesting material to work with?
Khoury: We worked with a wallcovering that was three-dimensional. Think of a very short pyramid — that is what the surface of the wallcovering resembles (lots of tiny squished pyramids) with a foam filling. Since our concept was about warping grief, the visual properties of this wallcovering were perfect. But, it was definitely hard to sew.
Sample: Materials are everything. The feel of a handmade book, the quality of silk in a scarf or the resilience of paint in a hospital corridor. The materials we use matter. Knowing the capabilities of your materials will have a great impact on your finished piece.
The Connector: What was the most challenging part of this entire process?
Khoury: I decided to run for team leader because I consider myself a pragmatic and realistic person who makes assertive decisions based on practicality in combination with opinion. This concept was both so interesting and confusing that we had so many ideas — it was hard to narrow them down. We established a majority rules agreement since the first day, and that really helped. The challenging part was maneuvering our team decisions, without making anyone feel invalidated.
The Connector: What was the most exciting or frightening about the theme, color palette or key words you were given?
Khoury: The most exciting part was that we figured out a story from the very beginning, of representing a person growing and transitioning from a place of grief to a place of hope and strength. From there, there were so many exciting ideas as to how to communicate that both visually and in motion on a runway. We ended up using the surprise factor of covering our model in grey, and as the music changes she reveals her neon colors and confidence — just like a butterfly. You should see our Pinterest board, it’s awesome.
The hardest part was personal. I lost my dad to cancer last May, and it has been destroying me. Ironically, I was the one who picked “Grief” out of the bucket. Although I was able see it as an asset to be experiencing grief at a time when it’s most helpful to communicate the emotion, to create an honest and genuine project … it still tore me apart. That was, and is still, the hardest part.
Sample: Our group was challenged to tell a story using the words grief and warp, and the Pantone neon color strip. I lost my mother just before this completion and I found myself telling a story of a women taking grief and warping it with the vibrate life of neon light, to tell a story of strength. It was moving in a way I never saw coming. It was a hard push outside of my comfort zone while I was already in a compromising state, but it was worth it.
For more information on IIDA, “Dressed” and last year’s winners can be found here.
