MassArt Continuing Education Presents: Think Thursdays
Fashion Trends, Tools, and Sustainability
Speakers: Jennifer Varekamp, Christian Restrepo, Margaret Young
Moderated by Carlos Villamil

Fashion is personal. What we wear, where it comes from, who makes it and what it’s made of are integral to who we are. Hear what our panelists of fashion designers and educators have to say about what is happening in the world of fashion today.

Jennifer Varekamp is an associate professor of fashion design at MassArt. She is a freelance costume and apparel designer. She holds a BFA from MassArt and MEd from Harvard University and studied fashion design at the London College of Fashion and costume design in Florence, Italy . Varekamp has worked for several theaters and costume shops as designer, dye specialist and embroiderer in Boston and Chicago including the Steppenwolf Theatre. She received a Massart Foundation Fellowship in 2012, was a selected participant in the “Creative Industries and Sustainable Design” Tour of Germany in 2009, was a Surdna Arts Teacher Fellow in 2005 and received the Martin Arts Connection Award and the Ronald William Lane Designer Award.

Christian Restrepo is a graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and Design and studio manager in the Fashion department at MassArt. He is an American/Colombian maker who’s work echos these beliefs with pieces created in a slow cooked manner. Using unusual materials that explore intimate and human emotions through an obsessive, almost ritualistic process, theses ideas are transferred into objects of beauty.

Meg Young holds a BA in Art History from Emory University. She is Associate Director of Academic Computing at MassArt. Ms. Young has over 15 years of experience helping artists use technology to make art, and has exhibited at NorthEast SIGRAPH Annual Show, Fort Point Open Studios and CyberArts.

Carlos Villamil is a Boston-based Colombian multidisciplinary designer with a passion for Zero Waste fashion. His project Cytocouture, designed in collaboration with MIT PhD Laura Indolfi, was the winner of the 1st edition of Descience, a global competition that aims to bring science research closer to the public through fashion design. Besides Design, Carlos is also passionate for mentoring and has experience as college professor, teaching Design and Architecture History and Product Research at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogotá, Colombia. In Boston, he has worked with teenagers doing graphic and fashion design workshops in after school programs and at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston as assistant in the Teen Arts Council. Currently he is an Assistant Professor at the Industrial Design Department at Wentworth Institute of Technology.

Great artists and scholars teach in MassArt’s Professional and Continuing Education Program. Think Thursdays is a monthly series of conversations about current and future practice in disciplines of art and design with CE faculty, alumni and friends. See professional presentations and delve into issues and trends in the worlds of art and design while getting to know MassArt and the CE community.