By Brooke Finnerty
Victoria Nicolaevna Hales is one of the eighteen textile and apparel designers showing their collection at the annual Capstone Collection Fashion Show on April 27. In the following interview with University Fashion Group, she reveals details of her upcoming collection “Noetic Alchemy.”
BF: Tell me about yourself as an individual and a designer.
VNH: I’d say a lot of my style is very pastel and I like to have some pretty deep darkness in it. Like for example, my own personal style is a little edgy, but I like to wear more pastels. I think it’s so fun to combine very, very different aesthetics and I think I’ve always done that, so I’m excited that I got to make it myself.
BF: Tell me about your creative process.
VNH: I’d say it was very procrastinated. I’m definitely more of a night owl, so I’ll work during the night with fabrics that are very difficult. I worked on a few sequin fabrics, and I worked on beaded fabrics, which have had their own challenges. But I’d say that I like to get my fabric first and then I’ll get a feel for it and then make a garment based on those fabrics. It’s so hard to go the other way around where you sketch and have this amazing idea, and then it’s so hard to find the fabric that’ll do what you want it to do.
BF: Tell me more about what inspired your collection.
VNH: Ooh. I think originally it was fashion tech. I’m really into fashion technology, and I’d love to incorporate robotics into my garments in the future. But for this collection, I wanted to focus on construction and playing with volume a lot with a variety of textiles. Specifically, ones that are hard to work with because I’d like to become more fluent in the way that I sew before I move on to like mechanics and engineering. So yeah, it was a little challenge, but that’s what I wanted.
BF: Tell me more about your different looks.
VNH: I know one look at my collection is based around this character who’s a ballerina. It’s a very black swan vibe where she has a light side and a dark side. She’s going to have a very big billowy skirt and some black point heels. She’s going to be dancing on the runway, and she’ll have a pink corset and a really big spike choker that I got on Etsy.
I think that each individual in the collection has their own character. So, I have the ballerina and then I have a goddess look and a cyber like soldier look. One of them is a men’s look and it’s my first time working with men’s wear. I wanted to make something tailored and mixed with some draping, which is more couture in a way. So, the vest itself is going to be made with wool, which was so expensive, but it’s more structured. And then I’m going to be playing with mesh and these really, really flamboyant fabrics for the sleeves.
I’m making a pair of sequin pants and the sequins on the fabric are so tightly packed together that I was worried I was going to break the needle. I did a little patch of the material to see if it would break the needle and I got by, ’cause typically in couture you’re going to want to hand pick away the sequins that are on the seam allowance. Also, this is a velvet sequin material, so it’s a lot stretchier but I added a muslin layer underneath it to give it a more structured shape. ‘I think it falls better that way. But yeah, that’s another look that I’m working on, and we’ll see how it goes. It’s really blending men’s tailoring techniques with couture-like feminine vibes.
I’m also using something that’s recently been trendy and it’s liquid organza. It’s so shiny but it is a pain to work with. If you don’t have the right needle or like a needle that’s sharp enough, you can snag the fabric really easily and it’ll create a big cut in the fabric where you can obviously see it. This also can’t just be ironed easily, and it has to be steamed, but it’s just so fun and cool. I’m also making a corset with this fabric, so I’ve had to put layers and layers under this to use it as an overlay. So that’s a little, something difficult, but fun ’cause it’s worth it.
BF: How do you feel about your collection being revealed on the runway?
VNH: I’m so scared ’cause I think there’s going to be a lot of people, but I think everyone’s really supportive, so I’m excited to see. I’m really happy that UT and UFG have given us this opportunity to show our creative designs, like everything that we’ve worked on for years. I think it’s going to be a really fun opportunity. My models are great, like they’re literally all so, so, so good. I’m so thankful for that too.
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