Life of a Fashion Senior: Part One

Written by Hana Hyman

Photographs by Hana Hyman

This year, District is following a fashion senior and fashion show model from midterms to finals as they experience the chagrin and euphoria of completing a senior fashion collection. Each week, we will bring you an update on each of the two participants’ progress, giving you an exclusive, inside look into the lives of fashion seniors and their models.

First, introducing Taylor Krankowski. Krankowski is a fourth-year childrenswear designer from Tabernacle, New Jersey. She decided to do childrenswear at the end of last year, wanting to break away from the traditional instruction.

“Throughout SCAD, it’s like from freshman to junior year, you just learn womenswear … And I kind of wanted to try something in a different field, so I chose childrenswear over menswear, basically,” Krankowski explained.

At age ten, Krankowski wasn’t a Barbie girl. She was “big into sports—a huge tomboy,” collecting baseball cards and playing lacrosse and field hockey throughout high school. Interestingly, these childhood experiences did not influence Krankowski’s collection. Rather, it is her two young nieces—one three years old and the other one and a half—who serve as her muses.

Krankowski’s designs simulate melting ice cream, using layers of puffy paint and the designer’s original fabric prints to emulate the drips and splatters. The collection is geared toward girls aged five to eight years. Due to the materials, the clothes are interactive, fun and playful. Krankowski’s collection also features custom-made chocolate chip buttons, handcrafted by fourth-year industrial design major Henry Cowdery from California.

Post graduation, Krankowski says she hopes to be employed “anywhere that pays.” Commercial companies, like Macy’s and Jones New York, pique her interest, but Krankowski’s dream is to stay in childrenswear. In 20 years, Krankowski hopes to be the head designer for a childrenswear brand.

Krankowski describes herself as “relaxed, easy-going and fun.” “That’s what separates me from a lot of fashion design majors,” she said, “because it’s such a stressful major to be in. The way I’ve approached it is, ‘if I don’t get it done, I’m not going to get it done whether I’m stressing about it or relaxed about it. I make sure I take on enough work that I can finish everything in time, but I’m pretty relaxed about everything that I do. I make time for myself, I make time for my friends, and I think that’s important. It’s college. It’s not just your projects, it’s about having an experience.”

On Friday, the fashion seniors experienced the first of two critiques with some of the fashion show judges, professors Aina Beck Hussain and Evelyn Pappas, as well as the dean of the School of Fashion, Michael Fink. For this first critique, seniors present three looks from their collection in the final fabrics. All of the models are present for the critiques, including Krankowski’s first grade models, one of whom came prepared with a treat from Leopold’s.

The tricky thing about fittings is accuracy; the designers get only one fitting with the models for every critique, so the measurements need to be as accurate as possible the first time. In Krankowski’s case, using child models, there are additional challenges. “You need to have really well-made garments because they are stretching things and running around. They are not like most models!”

For Krankowski, critique went well: “Going into it, I knew what was wrong with my collection … It was mostly dealing with application stuff, like puffy paint and how to sew it and what fabrics work best with it … I knew those issues going into it and it was something I needed to reference my teachers for. I told Michael [Fink] that and he was fine with it. … There were no design problems.”

As for the collection? “The children loved it,” beamed Krankowski. “One girl said, ‘I just want to eat my outfit. It looks so much like chocolate!’”

Stay posted for another update on Krankowski next Wednesday.

Read this week’s update on fashion show model Tori Dubray.

Editor’s note: The captions on the first photo was corrected to Morris Hall instead of Eckberg. The caption on the second photo was changed from “spring and dessert inspired” to “ice cream inspired.”

In the first paragraph, changed the number of fashion designers and models from “2” to 1″, respectively.