Written by:
Megan Osborne
Thank you for Funding Fashion!
This collection feature is a particularly special one. The piece we are highlighting, designer Orlando Dugi’s purple quilted jacket, is a brand new addition to the museum’s permanent collection. The purchase of this garment was made possible through our first Funding Fashion initiative held in celebration of the designer on November 8. Thank you to everyone who attended the event, your support made the purchase of this piece possible.
Sculptural fashion
The purple quilted jacket is part of Orlando’s Spring/Summer 2018 capsule collection, which evokes the feeling of walking through a garden just after it has rained. Orlando explored the ideas of sculptural fashion with this collection. The sparkle of the beads and crystals shimmer like raindrops on petals. The jacket is made from two layers of purple silk organza quilted together, with white feathers encased between them. The feathers are positioned to meet at the central point of four quilted squares, giving the illusion of the feathers creating the petals of a floral shape. Each quilted intersection is finished off with a tiny purple bead. This small bit of sparkle draws the eye to the center of the floral shape and highlights the hand quilting.
The tall sculpted collar and matching cuffs are adorned with hand-cut and pre-cut flowers in varying shades of purple. Each floral element opens around a rhinestone placed at its center. The fabric flowers sit in a bed of beads and sequins that climb in vertical lines up the collar and around the cuffs.
Sante Fe Community College collection
Avenir Museum Assistant Curator Megan Osborne and designer Orlando Dugi selected this piece because of the story it tells beyond its initial beauty. The jacket was produced as part of the line created when Orlando returned to school. After seven years of self-taught success he felt compelled to improve his craft. In 2016, he made the decision to return to school to receive formal training and advance his design work. Orlando was accepted to Santa Fe Community College to study Fashion Design in the School of Arts, Design and Media Arts. He took classes in production sewing, flat patterning, fashion history, and fashion illustration along with courses in entrepreneurship and business that focused on the fashion industry.
In May of 2018, Orlando graduated from Santa Fe Community College with an Associate of Applied Arts degree in fashion design. This jacket is a product of his time in school and an important story about the value of formal education that we can share with students here at CSU.
The Avenir Museum is honored to host the first solo exhibition of work created by this Santa Fe based designer, Walking in Beauty; Designs by Orlando Dugi (July, 2 2019 – December 14, 2019). We cannot say “thank you” enough to everyone who made the Avenir Museum’s first Funding Fashion initiative such a resounding success.
The Avenir Museum is a part of the Department of Design and Merchandising in CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
