Joella Stallard showcases her pleated designs.

Joella Stallard admits she gravitates towards simple, tailored and fitted sportswear pieces,  for herself and in her designs. However, you would never know that once you see her four looks that will grace the Senior Fashion Show runway.

“My designs are normally more ready-to-wear than couture, which doesn’t come across at all in this collection,” reflects Joella. “I tend to work in the realm of American sportswear separates (think Jackie O) and simplicity always works better with the things I design.”

Yet, Joella’s designs in this collection are anything but simple. They are full of flowy and airy fabrics, many of them with detailed pleated designs.

“Pleats are not something we work with much in our classes. If we do, you make your own pleats and not work with a piece of fabric that is already pleated,” she says.  “Learning how to work with the fabric before I started sewing was a real challenge.”

Although the fabrics Joella selected for her pieces were daunting, her muses, which included “The Blind Swimmer” by Max Ernst and “Bird in Space” by Constantine Brancusi were chosen for their simplicity, flow and color structure.

“I pulled some of my color palette from the Ernst painting and then built the rest of my palette based on what I liked with those colors. The line work in the painting made me immediately think of pleats so that is why there are quite a few of those showing up in my collection,” adds Joella. “I tried to pull in the simplicity of the Brancusi sculpture with the clean lines of my non-pleated pieces. The gold tone of the sculpture will come into play with some of the accessories, which I am collaborating with fine arts senior Dion Utt to create.”

The Blind Swimmer by Max Ernst

As her senior year comes to a close, Joella is looking forward to life after school and hopes for a position in the fashion industry in her preferred part of the design process.

“My favorite parts are definitely pattern-making and the actual construction of the garment, because that is where you solve all of the problems with the design,” she says. “I also enjoy solving the fit. Every model is going to be a different size and you can start out on the form, but once it’s on a person you have to figure out the fit.”

For those who are soon to follow in her footsteps and will begin their journey to the 2013 Senior Fashion Show, Joella offers some very poignant advice about staying on task with all assignments.

“Pay attention to what your instructors are telling you and learn to build working relationships with them so that when you need their help asking isn’t an issue,” she says. “Also, don’t be afraid to ask your peers for advice on projects, we are at a visual arts school and we all approach and view things differently, sometimes hearing a different point of view is all you need to understand where to go with a project.”

Be sure to purchase your tickets now before they are gone, so you can see Joella’s final project take the runway on May 11.