Downtown Bangor’s Harlow Street is most definitely not New York City’s West 54th Street, the site of legendary party palace Studio 54 where artist Andy Warhol mingled with scenesters and celebrities in the 1970s and 1980s.
And stores such as Aubuchon Hardware and Walgreens aren’t exactly considered sources of high-fashion materials.
For one night, however, everything came together to turn the University of Maine Museum of Art into the place to see, and be seen.
The UMMA Fashion Challenge contest, which was dreamed up by new UMMA director George Kinghorn with a nod to the TV show “Project Runway,” turned the museum’s galleries into something resembling a New York City couture runway show or nightclub as nine mostly amateur teams of local designers and models showed off their creations.
Kinghorn wanted to give people a chance to create their own art and show off the museum to those who might not normally visit, but the Fashion Challenge was also a way to kick off a new UMMA exhibit, “Celebrities & Socialites: Photographs by Andy Warhol.” The exhibit opens Oct. 11, along with two other shows. Fashion Challenge attendees were offered a sneak preview of the Warhol photos.
The contest, which was won by Bangor sisters Shanice Cruz, the 16-year-old designer, and Semaj Cruz, the 19-year-old model, was
clearly something the community craved. The event sold out in three days and UMMA had a waiting list of around 100 people. The Fashion Challenge was such a hot ticket that one of the nine groups in the contest entered because it was their only way to get through the door.
“I think it really signals that Bangor is ready for some innovative things,” said Kinghorn, who arrived at UMMA from the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville in Florida. “Being a newcomer to Bangor, I wasn’t certain what would be appropriate. Florida’s a different place. But the fact that we were sold out quickly, this is a sign to me that this city would like to see more of that.”
Shanice Cruz said her father first saw a flier for the Fashion Challenge, and she immediately signed up.
“You don’t really get fashion opportunities like this in Bangor and I really want to be a fashion designer,” she said.
The Fashion Challenge rules were simple — each team of at least one designer and only one model could use only items that could be commonly found at hardware or drugstores, and could not purchase materials from stores that sell completed garments. The teams were allowed to use unbleached muslin.
While some of the teams stretched those limits by shopping at stores such as Ocean State Job Lot, all of the groups were innovative in their use of materials. One team decorated its dress with candy. Another made a skirt out of colored comics. The neck adornment on another model was a chrome shower hose.
The most important instruction, however, was that the teams look to Warhol for inspiration. The groups were to design a piece that a celebrity Warhol knew — such as Farrah Fawcett, Michelle Pfieffer and Pia Zadora, whose photographs are included in the UMMA show — might wear to a fashionable event.
For the young Shanice Cruz, mining Warhol’s art meant doing some research into his work, and buying a lot of bright caution tape which adorned her design.
“Inspired by Andy Warhol’s silkscreens, where a classic beauty such as Marilyn Monroe or Jackie O were made to pop with neon colors, this classic silhouette covered in bright caution and flagging tape … says, ‘Look at me,’” Shanice Cruz wrote in a personal statement about her creation. “This wearable art piece may be envisioned on current celebrities such as model Agyness Deyn and singers Rihanna or Pink. Whether reflecting the low lights of the gallery, the mirrored lights of the nightclub or the flash of the paparazzi, this dress screams, ‘Art-rageous.’”
Cruz used a painter’s drop cloth to achieve the proper stiffness for the short dress, then covered the entire creation in the neon tapes. The halterlike top, meant to hint at the styles in the heyday of Studio 54, was made out of hot-pink braided mason twine, and the bust held its shape and form thanks to two dust masks. The tapes echoed Warhol’s work not only in their colors, but also in their repetition.
Semaj Cruz also wore shiny leather ankle boots, and her mod-style makeup and hair complemented the dress without taking away from her sister’s design.
The dress was made of nine pieces Shanice Cruz sewed together. The fit of the dress, which hugged Semaj Cruz, impressed the judges.
“I couldn’t believe that she could make something that was actually not fabric fit like fabric,” said judge Heather Van Frankenhuyzen, the owner of downtown Bangor boutique Bella Luna.
Second place went to Belfast mother-daughter team Meredith and Max Alex, and their model, Alex Shaffer. Meredith Alex has worked as a set dresser on television shows in California and was a semifinalist for the final group that appeared on a season of “Project Runway.”
The statuesque Shaffer, who towered over the crowd in high heels, was draped in a patterned shower curtain with a metal shower hose around her neck.
The contest was punctuated by two runway shows featuring models wearing the latest from Bella Luna and fashions by Sophronia Designs, a company owned by Mallory Bruns of Bangor. There was also a reception after the contest, during which the crowd had a chance to look at the Fashion Challenge designs up close.
Other judges were Tanya Pereira, an economic development assistant for the city of Brewer, Deb Neuman, the director of the Target Technology Incubator at the University of Maine, and Bangor Mall General Manager Jim Gerety. Bangor Daily News ShopGirl columnist Kristen Andresen hosted the event.
The top two teams each received Bella Luna gift certificates.
Considering the success of the evening, Kinghorn expects to hold more activities to bring the community into the museum for other reasons than merely the art on the walls. Next up may be a “Get Blinged Out for New Year’s Eve” event in which the public can come into the museum and make their own faux jewelry creations a few hours before Bangor’s downtown event starts that night.
“I think museums really have to reinvent themselves in the sense that the old model of just being a place with art on the wall is old-fashioned,” Kinghorn said. “Hopefully this will start the [idea of the] museum as a lively center of activity that brings in diverse people of all ages, all walks of life, to enjoy the art.”
“Celebrities & Socialites: Photographs by Andy Warhol,” along with “Angelo Ippolito” and “Reclaimed: Works by Mildred Johnson & David McLaughlin” open Saturday, Oct. 11, at UMMA. For more information, go to www.umma.umaine.edu or call 561-3350.