A Limited opportunity for SCAD designers
By Gage Daughdrill
For some, Tuesday may have been just another day of lectures and studios, but for nine talented SCAD students, it was a day to remember.
The university’s reputation in the art and fashion worlds proved to be at the forefront yet again, launching jewelry and objects majors into a once-in-a-lifetime real world experience — design an exclusive collection of pieces to be produced and sold at The Limited. The women’s retailer held an exclusive event for the unveiling of the student collaboration collection, with all student designers and even the CEO of The Limited herself, Linda Heasley, in attendance.
Encased concept designs were adjacent to their finished products. Displaying only minor adjustments in elements such as hue and material, it gave a real sense of the process.
From concept to completion.
Lillian G. Ray, a fourth-year jewelry and objects major from Lebanon, Tenn., discussed the students’ hands-on involvement throughout the process.
“Whenever the production team would make a change, they always went through us to make sure it was OK,” said Ray. Her necklace design, a twist of glass pearl-dotted golden chains joining bolder golden metal links, has a unique eye-catching quality to it while embodying design concepts lauded by The Limited.
Inspired by femininity and research gathered from process sketching, Yudie Shan was able to create a matte silvertone link pendant necklace. The third-year jewelry and objects major from Shanghai explained how students were given the concept on reflecting their designs through some of The Limited’s current clothing collections, ’40s Glory and Ivy League. Shan wanted to make her piece wearable in any situation, and like the other student designers’ creations, it seemed to be just that.
Each mannequin placed throughout the store was donning jewelry from the collection paired with seasonal clothing designed by The Limited.
“SCAD’s focus on fashion merchandising, fashion and jewelry design were components that hit a lot of areas I was interested in from a brand standpoint,” said CEO Heasley. Her idea was to give the students a real-life experience on what happens in companies from a designer’s perspective. During the research process, students were placed in groups to conjoin their ideas based on the leverage of individual creative thinking.
“We like for people to work together; we know individual inspiration is very important,” said Heasley.
With this experience, the student designers garnered a strong addition to their résumés and portfolios, and some even internships and job opportunities.
“I believe great product starts with great design,” said Heasley. “And SCAD holds a lot of elements that I was very interested in.”
