Tag Archives: SCAD

Dispatches from Savannah: Speaking at SCAD Style

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Earlier this week I traveled to Savannah to speak at SCAD Style, the month-long chock-full festival put on by the Savannah College of Art and Design that culminates in a student fashion show and lifetime achievement award. This year’s recipient: Isabel Toledo.

I was delighted to be in the company of an impressive roster of speakers, such as Pulitzer Prize winning Washingnton Post fashion critic Robin Givhan, hip-hop pioneer Russell Simmons, interior designer Jonathan Adler, Barneys creative director Simon Doonan, designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka, architect Clive Wilkinson, MoMA curator Barry Bergdoll, New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman and many others. I would have loved to stay the month attending each talk – and I recommend it to all, since all lectures are free – but alas, my stay was just a few days. Continue reading

Savannah on my Mind

I’ve been in Savannah less than 24 hours and I’ve already satisfied three desires:

1. I had shrimp and grits (less than 20 minutes after landing) at the big and bawdy 700 Drayton restaurant at the Mansion hotel on Forsyth Park.
Verdict: Usually I prefer a cream sauce but this one had a gravy, which was also nice, if rich, and the mushrooms rounded it out nicely.

savannah-700drayton Continue reading

SCAD President Shares Design Secrets of Eccentric Southerners

paula20070829_psw_034_v2Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Richmond Academy of Medical Alliance Foundation (phew!) luncheon at The Jefferson Hotel with guest speaker Paula Wallace, the founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design. I’m not sure how one goes about starting a college, but in 1978 she did, and now it’s the largest art and design school in the country. Amazing!

Here’s what’s happening at SCAD:

Designer Isabel Toledo (recently of Michelle-Obama-inaugural-suit fame) is coming to the fashion school’s fashion week this year; last year “The Wrestler” premiered at its film festival; through its Working Class program, students actually design for major corporations (they do the photography for the West Elm catalogue, for example); they have an amazing shop of student work called Shop SCAD; and an incredible campus in the medieval town of Lacoste in the south of France. I don’t know about you, but I was totally blown away. Continue reading