THREADS Designer Spotlight: Kayla Schutt

Kayla Schutt is an apparel merchandising senior that views design as more of a hobby.

This led Schutt to drop the design aspect of her major, and THREADS was the perfect opportunity to practice her hobby.

“It’s my senior year and I wanted to do something fun extra curricular wise,” Schutt said. “It just seemed like a fun thing to do.”

Schutt had to do something that would work with her schedule. This was a big goal for her and she knew that it would be a lot to take on but it was something that she wanted to prove to herself that she could do.

The collection is not only inspired, but additionally based off of wedding gowns. Schutt’s mother provided another source of inspiration.

“My mom was a lot of help with my collection, and an inspiration,” Schutt said. “I watched her design dresses for pageants and weddings.

Growing up surrounded by her mother’s passion and dedication for design, Schutt watched her mother spend all of her free time outside of her day to day job as a dental hygienist, working as a seamstress completing designs as a hobby.

“I’ve watched her design dress for pageants and work on wedding dresses,” Schutt said. “She is so excited that I’m doing this and following in her footsteps.”

The individual dresses illustrate different aspects of what a bride can look like on her wedding day based on her personality. The collection is comprised of four different looks, a look fit for the traditionalist, hippy, classic and the more audacious dresser.

“The tulle dress is more of a traditional wedding dress, the butterfly dress is a hippie style, free flowing and the Tiffany bow dress was inspired from Jackie O and a dress from the movie 27 Dresses,” Schutt said.

Her last look is a bathing suit.

“I wanted to show a completely different look for a bride,” Schutt said. “That she could look sexy on her wedding day.”

The collection utilizes various fabrics such as tulle, satin, upholstery fabric, gauze and silk chartreuse. Construction involved both conventional and unconventional design techniques.

Schutt explained that she never took the pattern making class, meaning she didn’t know how to construct patterns, and performed alterations from the pattern pieces she had.

However, searching for a bath suit pattern that conveyed the look Schutt envisioned proved to be impracticable. Thinking more innovatively, Schutt took a bathing suit that fit her model, laid it flat and constructed her own pattern following the similar structure.

This wasn’t the only design obstacle encountered.

“I have never made a wedding gown before, so it was a challenge for me to pull off three,” Schutt said. “Wedding gowns need support boning, and you have to use thicker fabric on the inside for structure and added support, which isn’t needed in regular clothing garments.”

She also had to learn how to make all of the head pieces for all of them.

Schutt has spent countless numbers of hours working on her collection, but explains it was worth it. She expects the show to be great but is already anticipating the nerves that will follow the day of the show.

Being backstage offers a completely different setting worrying about models, makeup and the walking style of the models. Schutt said her nerves won’t let up until the moment the girls walk on stage.