Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts presented its third annual "Fashion Design Day," a collaboration between the Center's Fashion Design and Photography Departments. Professional makeup artists Derek Miller and Priscilla Freire of Estee Lauder were on hand to make up 12 female students from the Fashion Design class, who then posed in fashion shoots shot by Photography students both in-studio and out of doors (the weather was sunny, so there were a lot of shoots in the woods on Usdan's 200-acre woodland campus).
This year's Fashion Design theme was working with fabrics. Students were given a variety of fabrics as an inspiration for design, and various techniques were taught, including hand-stitching, working a sewing machine and embellishing.
Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, whose alumni include Natalie Portman, Mariah Carey and Jane Monheit, has introduced the arts to more than 60,000 Tri-State Area children ages 6-18 since its founding in 1968. Usdan's program features more than 40 programs in music, dance, theater, visual arts, writing, nature & ecology, and chess. New programs are always being added - in recent years, Fashion Design, Book Illustration, Technical Theatre, and Organic Cooking And Simple Food. No audition is needed for most programs. Each summer, 1,600 students are transported to the Center in air-conditioned buses each day. One-third of Usdan's students attend on scholarship. The unique stimulation of the Center has caused many to go on to arts careers. Alumni include members of Broadway shows and major music, theater, and dance ensembles such as the Boston Pops and the New York City Ballet.
Photos Courtesy of Usdan Center
Estee Lauder makeup artist Priscilla Freire makes up a student
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