Winners of 'Cool vs. Cruel' Fashion Design Contest
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NEW YORK, Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), together with The Art Institutes, celebrate the best in fur-free design with the second annual "Cool vs. Cruel" Fashion Design Contest awards ceremony. Marisa Widjojo from The Art Institute of Seattle was chosen as this year's grand prize winner by a panel of judges that included designer Jay McCarroll, and wins a trip to the ceremony in New York and an internship with a designer showing at New York Fashion Week in September.
The Cool vs. Cruel contest challenges fashion design students from The Art Institutes to reinterpret a women's haute-couture evening wear garment that contains real fur, using animal-friendly synthetics and plant-based resources instead.
Widjojo's winning design is a modern layered dress with a faux seal fur wrap that impressed the judges with its detail and chic approach to the use of manmade materials to re-create a fur look.
Season one Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll was on the panel of judges that included designer Marc Bouwer, Mickey Boardman of Paper magazine, actress Elizabeth Berkley, designer Atom Cianfarani, design house Duckie Brown, Survivor: The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca, and Shelly Vella of Cosmopolitan UK.
"The Humane Society of the United States and The Art Institutes are showing that all it takes is a little creativity to replace the cruelty of fur on the runway," said McCarroll.
The judges will attend the awards ceremony on Thursday, November 16 from 7-10 pm at SOL, 609 W. 29th St. in New York City, to celebrate the student designers and their winning garments.
"The animals need their fur more than we do, and this contest shows how easy it is to create beautiful clothes with that idea in mind," said Annie Judah, fashion industry liaison for The HSUS.
The second place winner is Ricardo Auguste -- who placed third last year- from The Art Institute of New York City. Auguste's garment is an elegant purple woven dress featuring fringe and velvet instead of animal fur. Neisha Orr from Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts in York, Pennsylvania came in third place this year with an acrylic tweed fitted suit with a faux fur collar that one of the judges called "a classic Park Avenue look with a kind-hearted spin."
According to Bruce Dempsey of The Art Institutes, Cool vs. Cruel gives students "an opportunity to showcase not just their fashion design talents, but also their ability to be resourceful, creative and imaginative in the way they reconfigure a runway look to make it compassionately their very own."
The finalists' garments from around the country will be featured at the November 16 ceremony, as well as being incorporated into a traveling gallery exhibit which will make stops at Art Institutes schools nationwide. To view the finalists' designs, and learn more about the Cool vs. Cruel contest visit: http://www.artinstitutes.edu/coolvcruel and http://www.coolvscruel.org.
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization with nearly 10 million members and constituents. The HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in companion animals, disaster preparedness and response, wildlife and habitat protection, marine mammals, animals in research, equine protection and farm animal welfare. The HSUS protects all animals through education, investigation, litigation, legislation, advocacy and field work. The nonprofit organization is based in Washington and has field representatives and offices across the country. On the web at http://www.hsus.org.
The Art Institutes (http://www.artinstitutes.edu) with 32 educational institutions located throughout North America, provides an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals.
