A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

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Katrin Schnabl

Professor

Contact

Bio

Chair in Fashion Design. BFA, 1995, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. Exhibitions: New York Fashion Week, Lincoln Center, Danspace, NY; Teatro Communale, Firenze; Evanston Art Center, DePaul Art Museum, Millenium Park, Tourism Center Gallery, Chicago. Bibliography: Harper's Bazaar Saudi Arabia; Madame Germany; Harper's Bazaar España; Kaltblut Magazine; Soma Magazine; Vestal Magazine; Noi.se; Fault Magazine; Kurv Magazine; Creem Magazine; SHK; Stylewylde; Fashion Theory; Full Frontal Fashion/ Metro TV; GapD; Lucky; Harper's Baazar; Women's Wear Daily; Wired; New York Times; Village Voice; Dance Insider; Frankfurter Rundschau; Chicago Reader. Awards: NYSCA, Individual Artist Grant, Chicago, US patent.

Experience at SAIC

I was invited as a Visiting Artist to the fashion department in 2004, and was hired on tenure-track the following year. As faculty we are very invested to shape the curriculum and direction of the department, and we created a unique graduate program in Fashion, Body and Garment that started in 2008. I am very fond of my colleagues, and how we are able to guide the next generation. I am also very proud of our students, and the work they are able to make and share. The school is a very special inspiring and supportive environment for young artists to explore and set a foundation for their future.

Personal Statement

Trained as a dancer, my approach is deeply influenced by the first hand experience of engaging through motion, sound and energy while navigating space. An extensive period as collaborator creating costumes for post-modern dance and performance artists allowed me to work with an extensive range of body types and needs. Visual communication and visceral experience come together on the body, and through the medium of fashion, engaging both viewer and wearer. The art of pattern-cutting becomes a means for transformation of conceptual sets of ideas into concrete form carried on the frame of the body. Through the collections I build I continue to investigate how garments can empower and inspire.

 

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This course enables students who hand knit to pursue the challenge of creating garments and/or objects with knitting machines. Through demonstration and discussion of traditional basic methods and structured exercises will give the students a foundation in various stitch patterns and techniques. Shape and fit along with texture manipulation are explored. Historical reference as well as current contemporary design concepts will be researched enabling students to focus on individual design to produce a garment or an object. Students will design, sample and explore possibilities in a traditional and non-traditional manner using various materials.

Class Number

1372

Credits

3

Description

This fashion capstone course explores methods and processes for research, planning, and production leading up to the installation of a body of work. Students will consider the space, duration, audience, and partners as they develop mock-ups and draft proposals and pitches. Students contemplate curation for solo or group exhibits, work in teams, and gain professional practice as they lay the groundwork for development of a fully considered display. The class will have the opportunity to conceive, curate and build out a public facing installation, either in the Fashion Department Exhibition Space, or as part of the annual spring show.

Class Number

1170

Credits

3

Description

Students approach cloth as a medium: methods of handling, joining, and manipulating fabric, as well as concepts and methods of defining and finishing edges, enclosures, and openings. Foundational draping techniques involve manipulating a flat piece of material in the three-dimensional form of the body and then transferring this original design to the flat pattern, or block. The development of a basic set of blocks (slopers) defining a 3-dimensional form becomes the foundation to generate variations and options using flat pattern design. The importance of weave and material characteristics, as they apply to design are investigated. Students engage with form and volume on the body through combined draping and drafting methods, such as reshaping areas of an existing form, as well as manipulating fabric prior to molding it to the body, and they study hand- and machine- finishes to achieve sculpting and manipulating cloth.

Class Number

1984

Credits

3

Description

(In this co-taught studio), students are combining the conceptual and functional principles as they build full silhouettes as prototypes for a capsule mini-collection they have designed. The principles of shape, balance and proportion of the garment are emphasized as students adapt a silhouette from original design sketch to cloth. Through muslin- fittings on a fashion model, students clarify shape, details, volume, and finishes to complete looks through fully materialized garments.

Class Number

2095

Credits

6

Description

This course investigates communication through dress, and the interface of the individual within the context of communities, both real and imagined. Technology, its impact and its potential for added function or meaning are investigated. Students continue their process of essential journaling to develop a high level of professionalism throughout their work, emphasizing a personal style and direction.

Class Number

1949

Credits

6

Description

Branding, imaging, time lines and sequencing are addressed as collections are refined and presented. In this a one and one-half day course students finalize 12 silhouettes from their master collection or equivalent body of work. The final presentation includes a setting, a written component, and supporting visual materials. With the thesis presentation, students demonstrate their ability to professionally position their work within the field.

Class Number

1950

Credits

6