UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 10, Page 1
November 7, 1991
Textiles design faculty take top national honors
By Beth Thomas

     If you're interested in fashion and want to know what's in,
what's cool and what's hot, hot, hot, don't start planning a trip
to Paris.
     Instead, think about consulting the award-winning faculty in
the University of Delaware's Department of Textiles, Design and
Consumer Economics. The talented professors and some of the
students who make up the department were the talk of the town in
San Francisco recently at the International Textiles and Apparel
Association's (ITAA) annual meeting.
     Both faculty and students walked away from the event with
prizes for their designs in fashion apparel, jewelry and
accessories; and two professors received grant monies to pursue
some innovative classroom ideas.
     In the Fiber and Textile Arts competition, Karen Schaeffer,
associate professor, took first place for her "Calligraphic
Cleopatra," a three-tiered neckpiece made from antique calligraphy
pen points and beads.
     Schaeffer said her uncle discovered the pen points when his
97-year-old father died.
     In the Fashion for a Target Market competition M. Jo Kallal,
associate professor, won first place for her suit, "Curved
Reflections." The contemporary gray flannel suit is flocked with
copper-colored polka dots and is trimmed in matching suede. It is
decidedly atypical-not what the term, gray flannel suit, brings to
mind. Kallal said the curves of the polka dots inspired the very
non-traditional structure and style lines.
     Kallal and her colleague Jane M. Lamb, also an associate
professor, were awarded a prestigious industry-sponsored mini grant
from the VF Corp., which owns Vanity Fair, Jansen and many other
apparel-manufacturing companies.
     The $1,000 grant, Lamb said, will be used to investigate
industrial implications of the professor's conceptual framework for
apparel design.
     Winning honorable mention for her coat, "Jacques Coatsteau,"
was instructor Mary Jane Matranga. The full-length, flared coat is
made of 100 percent cotton muslin and handpainted to resemble the
sea-from the ocean floor to the surface. Matranga entered it in the
Wearable Art category.
     Four of Matranga's students had pieces entered in the shows or
in exhibitions. All had passed the first level of competition to be
included.
     Senior Jennifer Seiden won a third place prize for her beaded
evening purse, "Paris Excitement." Seiden was inspired to make the
purse, which resembles a Matisse cut-paper design, after a
department-sponsored study trip to Paris. Her design also was
chosen for the cover of the competition's program.
     Other students who entered work, but did not place, were Clair
Arbeiter, who entered the wearable art competition with a white
sleeveless cocktail dress, entitled "Pop Eyes," inspired by Roy
Lichtenstein pop art; Heather Johnson, who entered a collection of
hair barrettes representing different abstract art movements such
as surrealism, cubism and impressionism; and Brian Deleu whose
three-foot black georgette hat, "Chapeau noir," was inspired by the
huge hats worn by rice harvesters in the Philippines.
     Kim Gruszczynski, a student of Matranga and Kallal, entered
two pieces of jewelry inspired by the grill work she saw on fences
during her study trip to Paris and by Elsa Schiaparelli, a couture
designer of the 1930s who used strong colors and glitter.
Gruszczynski created a scrolled type pendent or dangling earring
and a pin.
     Lynne Dixon-Speller, assistant professor, had three bathing
suits and a non-traditional wedding dress entered in the
competitions.
     The swimwear, entitled a "Touch of Neon," included three
styles of black suits with neon highlights, designed to camouflage
body flaws. The wedding gown is "not for the virginal, here-comes-
Cinderella type," Dixon-Speller said. "It's glittery, strapless and
not something to wear in some churches.
     "The U.D. faculty played other roles at the meeting as well.
Lamb, for instance, made two presentations and a poster
presentation and she chaired a roundtable discussion, and Rosetta
S. Lafleur, associate professor, gave a presentation with Kallal
highlighting their work in building international linkages into the
program.