Crucible fashion show fires it up.
It’s been five years since the Crucible, Oakland’s fire-loving industrial arts education center, has put on a fashion show. New director Steven Young wanted to mark the nonprofit’s 14th anniversary with “a spectacle, with no limits or parameters,” he said, “except to push collaboration and pair industrial arts with quality design.”
Let’s start with the spectacular runway, a curvy, 60-foot catwalk crafted from 30 tons of scrap aluminum. Add a huge fireball bursting up from the middle, high-concept clothing, an aerialist, a fire-breathing violin and fire dancers, and you’ve got a show.
Nine designers worked with teams of leather, glass, metal and light artists to create about 45 looks for last weekend’s “Hot Couture” show, which was produced by Bianca Starr.
Wearable technology was a big theme: Kristin Neidlinger’s LED panel dress, hand-wired with hundreds of tiny lights, flickered in sync with the model’s movements. Her white plastic corsets embedded with sensors and LEDs picked up the model’s heartbeats. “You wear your insides on the outside,” said Neidlinger of Sensoree Design Lab.
Also using embedded lights was designer Rachel Lyra Hospodar of Coyote Counter Collective, who showed a series of expertly tailored felt outerwear pieces. “I like the idea of combining felt, the oldest textile known to man, with new cutting-edge LED technology,” said Hospodar of her collection of sculptural pieces embedded with illuminated stained-glass hexagons.
The Crucible’s 56,000-square-foot warehouse pulsated with DJ music and syncopated blasts of fire from atop huge blocks of recycled compacted aluminum. Burning Man enthusiasts mingled with first-time visitors and suburban retirees.
“This is a little slice of Burning Man heaven,” said jewelry designer Clare Ullman. “It’s all about iconoclastic expression,” added her husband, Dana, a homeopathy advocate and author. “That male model in the blue latex T-shirt and black latex jeans? He looked like a living cartoon. He was the mind-blower of the evening for me.”
There was that, as well as embossed leather and welded steel corsets and costumes by Crucible faculty members Celeste Flores and Sam Waller. Under the runway lights, the stained-glass effect of Jeaneen Brunck’s sheer organza and leather applique dresses came to life. Erin Mahoney showed wearable, feminine cocktail dresses with Crucible-crafted glass buttons and metal jewelry, while Annamarta Dostourian’s ethereal, myth-inspired woven wire costumes were otherworldly.
Seated in the front row, Marty Stockard took it all in. “I like being out of my comfort zone,” said this retired educator from Vallejo. “This is my fifth event here. This place is just off-the-wall creative.”
The Crucible is all about creativity and classes, serving 5,000 students with dozens of courses for youth and adults, as well as scholarships. This is where to find instruction in stone carving, fire eating and neon. There are youth camps for budding robot makers and adult immersion programs in woodworking and glass blowing. Class prices vary widely, from about $125 to $1,500 for some immersion classes.
