Discarded to Divine is the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s annual fashion fundraiser, where fashion students, designers, and artists are given discarded fabrics and clothing and asked to make something beautiful out of them. Each year we are amazed at what people come up with, especially our students! This year, four School of Fashion students were selected as Award Winners by the distinguished jury of artists and design and fashion industry professionals. We’ll be posting quick interviews with the winners all week, starting today with Yoyo Huang! And be sure to stop by Friday Nights at the De Young this week to preview all of the designs!
Name: Yoyo Huang
Major: BFA Fashion Design
Hometown: China
What materials did you use and was it easy to work with them?
My materials included the used sweater that had been donated and given to me on the day of the Discarded to Divine 2012 presentation. Then I unraveled it. It was a slouchy cardigan, so I could only work with its complete back piece and two sleeves. I turned the two sleeves into the back piece of my African monkey knitwear dress and used the back piece as the front piece of my knitwear dress. Then I did the silk screen printing on top of these pieces. Lastly, I machine-knit the collar and bottom sections. It was just fun to play with the materials and turn it into my own style.
What inspired your design?
A monkey sculpture in African Art area of the de young museum.
Follow the jump to read more!
What was the most challenging aspect of the project?
Finishing. The last step of completing my entry was all of the hand sewing to make sure it was perfect.
What was your reaction when you found out you’d won the Jury Award?
I was very surprised and happy that the Jury liked my design!
What are you most looking forward about the Gala and auction?
Haha… I’m excited to see how much the dress will go for!
To learn more about Discarded to Divine, or to buy tickets to the gala, click here.
