“There are a lot of similarities to designing a garment and architecture, including the structure of the clothing,” says Noopur Suckhlecha, a fourth-year Carnegie Mellon University student.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Carnegie Mellon students of many disciplines invent, build Lunar Gala's fashion creations
“There are a lot of similarities to designing a garment and architecture, including the structure of the clothing,” says Noopur Suckhlecha, a fourth-year Carnegie Mellon University student.
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Ah, Lunar Gala. A fashion show that I am deeply familiar with. I'm a designer this year for Lunar Gala and while I've complained endlessly about getting myself whipped up into something that I didn't have the time for, I don't regret doing it at all. I initially joined Lunar Gala because I wanted to get my feet wet in the world of Costume Design and Costume Construction. I am a noob when it comes to costume making and so taking on such a great technical challenge as Lunar Gala seriously put the learning curve to the test. I think as a result, my costume handiwork and basic understanding of stitching has improved greatly over the past few months and has really driven home the idea that I want to declare Costumes. I came into the program anticipating to declare Scenic (and I know it's still a year away until I'm able to declare) but it really was my experience with Lunar Gala that confirmed my creeping suspicions. It's a lot of work, creating costumes, and I think I really grasped that concept once I joined the organization. I spent my entire winter break locked away in my house, sewing everyday for hours and hours and hours. The final event, the fully curated fashion show, is this weekend and I'm very excited for its opening! I still have a lot of work to do on the costumes for my line, but I'm feeling good about presenting it. It's not the very best work that would have wanted to come up with, but I'm not giving myself too much of a hard time about it mainly because hey, it was my first time creating and constructing! And to put that up for people to see is pretty amazing. Plus, if it's terrible, no one will remember it because it was a college fashion show. Yep.
Lunar Gala is a really unique and cool event. Most people don’t think of something as time intensive as designing a clothing line as something that people could just do for fun, or at least I wouldn’t have thought of it, but the results of Lunar Gala show the creative ideas that CMU students can design and implement. I’m looking forward to seeing what people have come up with when I go to Lunar Gala. After watching the process of Michelle designing, applying to be a designer for Lunar Gala, and building the clothes for her line, I’m looking forward to not only seeing the result of all the work Michelle has been doing but also seeing all of the other work people have been doing this semester. The concepts in these images are really cool, and the close ups show great craftsmanship, which makes me look forward to seeing everything put together even more.
I've seen/heard about Lunar Gala before I even came to Carnegie Mellon. I think Lunar Gala is a great opportunity and platform for people from different areas to come together and apply their own creativity and skills to fashion. Like the article mentioned, there are artists, engineers, scientists and writers - there are so many talents and perspectives to showcase. It's amazing how a lot of designers started out with zero sewing or fashion design experience and now have a complete line ready to go. Before I came here, I had little to no sewing experience and I can't imagine putting an entire clothing line together. The fact that garments are not only made of fabric but other unconventional materials like plastic is very innovative and I can't wait to see them tonight. I also know a few designers involved in Lunar Gala, and they all devote so much time and effort to their work. It's exciting to finally get to see what they've been working on.
Lunar Gala sounds like a great opportunity for the students here at Carnegie Mellon. I can't even begin to imagine how much work goes into the show being a designer or really any part of the Gala. I think its really cool how students how are studying engineering, or philosophy, or anything, can get the opportunity to design and create their own clothes line. It makes me happy that people have an interest in designing and also provides proof that our passions are relevant to more people than we know. I think it would be really interesting to see how students with and engineering or architectural background go about making these designs and how their backgrounds contribute to those differences. I think it is really cool that an added benefit of Lunar Gala is getting experience with the business aspect of designing for a fashion show. The article mentions how its gives the students the opportunity to practice communication and collaboration in a somewhat professional setting and I think that is really awesome.
Based off of what I've read in this article, Lunar Gala to me represents something really important about CMU as a whole: our ability to innovate. And, not only this, but our ability to translate our skills from one discipline to the next as well. A CMU grad can never be pigeon-holed, because all of our professors make it abundantly clear from day one that we are not here to become the perfect product of one major. We are here to become the imperfect by-product of an environment which lends itself to multi-disciplinary exposure, and to see what we learn as an indication of skill, not path. We are meant to want more than what our degree says we know. Thus we are able to give to the world something more than what it already has, and that is exactly what Lunar Gala is doing. Lunar Gala represents why I came to CMU - sure, I wanted the small, tight-nit theatre nerd school vibe of Purnell. But I also wanted to be able to see people outside my department using their skills to make things I find just as cool. Congrats to all of Lunar Gala's designers, models, and collaborators - you're making CMU proud.
I went to Lunar Gala last year and the volume of outfits that these students are designing and producing is staggering. From what I remember, there were about five garments per designer, some more, some less, all completely made from the ground up by just one or two people. And in a relatively short time too. As a drama student, I assumed there would be many drama designers because this is basically costume design, but I was surprised to see how many designers there were that I didn't know- who were from a vast array of majors. It just goes to show how CMU looks for students who aren't just good at the one thing they decided to dedicate their life to, they look for people with all sorts of weird and specialized talents that they can use in so many ways. We really are an innovative self-motivated school from fashion design to all our exploration in robotics and science.
I think that Lunar Gala is up there with Playground in the really amazing creative events that Carnegie Mellon has. My desk is right next to Michelle in our design studio and over the past few months seeing her process and the amount of work she has put into creating her line has been incredible. Carnegie Mellon is one of those places that is an intersection of people that are amazing at all sorts of things. I think its so cool to bring together engineers, computer programmers, actors, designers, and musicians and than push them to their limits creatively and make them think outside the box. Lunar Gala is the kind of event that allows for that, and CMU is the kind of place that greatly encourages it’s students to stretch themselves across many disciplines and study broadly, instead of defining themselves with one skill or interest. The emphasis put on interdisciplinary study and innovation is one of the things that makes CMU such a great place to learn. I was really disappointed that I forgot to get tickets before it was too late. I know that the people that do get to go tonight are going to see some unique and incredible work by our peers.
I believe Lunar Gala to be such a joining event. First I'd like to say that for the past three months, my very good friend Michelle, one of the designers in lunar gala, has been working so hard and immaculately sewed so many beautiful pieces for her line. Unfortunately, I was not able to go to this years Lunar Gala, but I can say from the conversations that I have had with the people involved, it is an event full of excitement. As the article also points out, Lunar Gala attracts designers and models from all majors and colleges within Carnegie Mellon as well as attracts a very diverse audience. Treated with such regal parameters, I also sneaked a look at the load in process for this one night event. It looked like the preparation for a fashion show in like Milan or something; very nice. I think Lunar Gala is such a great way to meet new people and get involved in something that promotes art and new, cool ideas. It is definitely something that I want to get involved in towards the future.
Although my participation in the event this year was minimal, I am so glad for Lunar Gala's existence in my life. Watching my dear friend and fellow frosh DP Michelle blossom into an incredible designer before my very eyes, sewing endlessly (seriously, the amount of work she did was batshit, and I don't know how she pulled it off, but I think we've all accepted that Michelle is some sort of superhuman, indestructible DP, who is more evolved than the rest of us, or something) and creating, from scratch, a fully realized and well conceptualized/ developed line ALL BY HERSELF was something I feel honored to have experienced. From another perspective, I think that lunar gala allows our dear friends in the STEM fields to see what sorts of things the CFA kids do while locked up in our studios, whiling away the hours with no end in sight, something that I can affirm brings this campus closer together. (Also, on another note, we had some STEM designers this year, so how's that for breaking barriers and whatnot?) In short, I am so glad that Carnegie Mellon has events like Lunar Gala to remind us all of the incredible fortune we all have to go here and collaborate with/support each other along the way.
I hate to add yet another "Lunar Gala is great" comment to the pile, but I see no other choice. I think that Lunar Gala is important to this school because Carnegie Mellon focuses on interdepartmental work. The article discusses how not only the design majors participate. Maths and science majors rear their heads and pick up their sewing needles too. One (among many) of the reasons I chose to come to this school is because of its efforts to bridge the gap between the arts and the sciences. The Pausch bridge was literally built to do this. The BxA program is yet another demonstration of this ideal. maybe I'm still dizzy from the spew of orientation week, but arts and sciences are not opposites. They advance hand in hand. We, as theater majors, should understand that. Yet we somehow still manage to forget how interconnected we all are. I love the program here, but it does tend to distance us quite a bit from the rest of the university. That's why events like Lunar Gala are so important. It's a way for students from all areas to come together.
Lunar Gala is such a beautiful and incredible event, and I'm very upset that I was not able to attend this year. I first heard of Lunar Gala through my classmates who were submitting portfolios for consideration. At that point, I did not realize how big of a deal Lunar Gala was, or just how much work went into the creation of it. This ignorance changed rapidly as I watched my fellow DP Michelle working endlessly on her designs in the studio. I am completely in awe of her hard work and determination. She was able to create an entire line of clothing while staying on top of the boatload of work we have in this program. Like Lauren said, I think one of the best things about Lunar Gala is the interdepartmental aspect of it. It allows students that would probably never get to collaborate otherwise to be able to create beautiful things together. It allows more science-focused people to express their artistic side and apply their scientific knowledge to the creation of art. This event, in that sense, sort of embodies what Carnegie Mellon is about. Our school's motto, "My heart is in the work," is completely applicable to this event. To pull an event of this scale off, your heart has to be in the work.
I am so upset that I wasn't able to attend Lunar Gala this year, as I am in complete awe of the work that the people involved do on it. When Michelle submitted her design ideas, the entire studio was routing for her, but cautiously because we knew that the work load wasn't going to exactly lend itself to the work load we already had. However, as the date of the show came closer, and closer, and the bad of clothes started to crowd the already very full studio (my desk is right near Michelle's) everyone became very invested in Michelle's work. Then Scott joined the LG team, as one of their sound designers, and the entire DP clan was Lunar Gala crazed. This show is so exciting because it allows people from all different disciplines to get involved in one thing, and to create a pretty spectacular product from what I've heard. I am always so glad to see people get to take what they love and apply it to different things, it has been amazing to see Scott design for something he has never designed for before, and to see Michelle find something that she loves in fashion design. I think Claire really hit the nail on the head above by saying that this show really represents the motto of the school. As I spend more time at CMU I find that the more people I meet the more passion and love for work I find, and LG is a great example of this. I can't wait to see LG next year, or maybe even get involved.
I really enjoyed going to Lunar Gala and see all of the creativity that CMU has to offer. This was the first fashion show that I have ever been to so I didn’t know what to expect, but I was blown away. Many of the lines were stunning, beautiful, or just a little bit weird. I have to send a shout out to Becki and Michelle for their amazing respective lines. their especially was very well made, designed, and constructed. Another line that I want to mention was the line Pom, a line that was completely crocheted and knitted lingerie. It was really fun in a really weird and interesting sort of way. I really liked when the designers walked on out after their lines, as it really emphasizes the different walks of life all of the designers and models came from. This program really stretches the boundaries of many in this school by introducing them to something that is not necessarily their field of expertise. I am excited to attend more Lunar Galas in the future and see what more creativity the school has to offer.
I am lucky enough to sit next to one of this years Lunar Gala student designers. Watching her go from the concepts that she had on paper, to seeing her hand stitch articles of clothing really goes to show how passionate these people are. The talent that these people have is true amazing, design and building things that fit the human body is defiantly one of the more challenging aspects of design, but when you bring people together with many different backgrounds and disciplines they put there creative and technologic minds together to create some of the best art I have ever seen.
This time of year is always crazy for CMU students and I could never imagine having another thing on my plate. The amount of work that goes into this event is truly amazing. Everything from the technical side, with lights sound and media, to the designer side it is 100% student run making this event even more spectacular. I wish everyone in LG good luck tonight and hope it all goes off without a hitch.
Lunar Gala is one of those events that, I think, makes Carnegie Mellon University unique from others. It is an event that incorporates so many majors.
Obviously, there are design majors that work on most of the clothing lines, but there are also business majors that have opportunities in management and marketing. People who design the advertising, the space layout, the media, sound, the management. The list is endless!
After seeing the products on the runway my ideas about Lunar Gala changed. Before the show I was weary about the production value of the show, however, I was happily proven wrong. You could tell that the show was well-planned, organized, and exciting. It was amazing to see the different perspectives of all of these designers and the different majors of different walks of life walking the runway. The diverse population rocked.
It was awesome to see two of our own 2019 DP class participating in the event, Michelle, a featured designer, and Scott working on the sound. Kudos to both of them for making such a large commitment to something outside of school of drama. The time management skills that one must have to balance our work load and that large of a commitment should be commended.
I look forward to next years show, and possibly becoming involved with the organization.
The concept of Lunar Gala is amazing is so incredibly amazing to me. Opportunities like this are one of the reasons why I chose Carnegie Mellon as my University. It is such a beautiful melting pot of culture, ideas, and passions. If anyone goes to Carnegie Mellon and does not take advantage of this fact they are losing a valuable resource. Although I am a drama major, I often find that a large part of my inspiration comes from outside of Purnell and it is so important for us to get out of our bubble because there is so much that can be missed. We also have such a diverse community that can bring so many more perspectives to the table and I love that Lunar Gala brings them all together to create art as the centerpiece of the event. I hope this continues onwards for many many years since it is a great tradition, and I look forward to being apart of it one year!
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