Stitching for Success

Stefano Lima, a fashion student at San Joaquin Delta College and Lodi resident, designed a clothing collection called Spectacle that was shown last year at A Story of Fashion, a runway show at The Haggin Museum. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

Stitching for Success

Delta College students are learning the best of the business - from first sketches to fashion shows - and dreaming of seeing their clothes on the runway.

By Lauren Nelson
Lodi Living Editor

Saturday, January 3, 2009 6:08 AM PST

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During the late hours of the night, room 306 of the Shima Building at Delta College isn't unlike the messy workroom presented on Bravo's "Project Runway." It is complete with scraps of material torn from dress forms, the hum of industrial sewing machines and the high-pitched laughter of young designers gone deliriously loopy.

Before the spring fashion show, while other students are voluntarily locked in the library with laptops and text books spread across tables, Delta's fashion students carry their tackle boxes of thread, scissors and extra needles in one hand and yards of silk, taffeta and cotton in the other. They hole themselves up in the third floor classroom where they won't leave until they can wear their work. They depend on caffeine to get them through the final stitch, but also on the ultimate high of knowing their simple sketches are being transformed into real-life fashions.

At Delta, there are about 200 students in a fashion program most people don't know exists.

"We have a program that rivals some of the best," said fashion program coordinator Leslie Asfour.

While many fashion programs require students to share work spaces, Delta has two rooms with 30 industrial sewing machines that allow each aspiring designer to have their own stations. The rooms are equipped with sergers, babylocks, pressing machines and machines for specialty stitches. The students work on full-size cutting tables and industrial dress forms.

To give the students a view of fashion in the real world, they visit the fashion hubs in San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York. Students attend runway shows, view professional collections and meet with designers who are living the dream, including some former Delta students.

A chat with Michael Palladino at Henri Bendels in New York gave Delta accessory queen and silk-screen T-shirt designer Lisa Sysombath inspiration to make eclectic jewelry that pairs vintage and new pieces.

Ceazar Cabreros shows one of the dresses he made for a fashion class at San Joaquin Delta College. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

"I didn't get into jewelry until I went to New York," she said.

Now her pieces — necklaces and earrings made of large stones and even ornaments — are being sold in Stockton boutiques and at City Girl in Lodi.

In the workroom, the students look ahead to their futures that promise admission to fashion schools across the globe. They dream of their own lines, specializing in fashions from elegant party dresses to chunky jewelry.

The students sketch their own drawings. They hunt through rolls of linen and polyester and cotton. They create their own patterns and sew their own hems.

For most, sewing is somewhat of a new concept, an interest that bloomed in a beginning sewing class.

In the corner of the sewing room, a little black dress and sparkling pink top hang on dress forms like finished pieces of art. They are the first garments made by Delta fashion student Ceazar Cabreros, 19.

He got his hands on a professional sewing machine for the first time last year.

He was wooed by A-line dresses, box pleats and ballerina necklines when he was an elementary school student in the Philippines. With a dream that ceased to fade, he made the move to California, where he had family. Though his more traditional parents rather he do something a little more financially stable — like, say, being a doctor or lawyer — Cabreros can't see doing anything other than designing what hasn't been designed before.

"I like to create something beautiful," said Cabreros, whose style fuses "elements of romanticism, minimalism and modernism" with clean lines and small accents.

Hours at the sewing machine, a battle with procrastination (a battle for most designers) and the struggleto make accurate cuts are Cabreros' first steps in his road map to making clothes comparable to those made by his inspirations — Nicholas Ghesquiere, Alexander McLean and Elie Saab.

In the fall, Cabreros will attend the Academy of Art in San Francisco. And, though he knows it is ambitious, he plans to get a masters in fashion from Central St. Martin in Paris.

Lisa Sysombath wears leaf earings she made using Christmas ornaments. A painter, T-shirt designer and student, Sysombath became interested in jewelry after traveling to New York City with the school's fashion program. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

"If you have a dream, you have to dream big," he said.

Before leaving Delta, most fashion students present a handmade collection at A Story of Fashion, a runway show at the Haggin Museum. The students spend a semester sketching and sewing eight-to-12 pieces to be showcased on the public runway.

Lodi native and Delta fashion student Stefano Lima sent his collection down the runway at last year's A Story of Fashion. An avid watcher of "Project Runway," Lima says he is like the crazy, thinking-out-of-the-box designer Santino Rice from season two. Lima's wild, spiked-high, colored hair and outfits that pair acid-washed jeans and zebra-print Chuck Taylors make him standout almost as much as his garments do.

With lots of wools and rich, muted colors with twists of brightness and shine, Lima's collection, Spectacle, is inspired by the gothic tone in the Tim Burton film, "Sweeney Todd."

He has dresses that end at the knee. Shorts with high, empire waists. A gown of brown, gold, black and sheer layers. A pedal skirt that gives the effect of a blossoming flower. On his shorts, he created the criss-cross look of a corset with hand-set studs that turned his fingers raw and bloody. They are period pieces with an edge. Some might say there are Neo-Edwardian elements with a kiss of steampunk in the billowy sleeves and newfangled bustle dress.

What Fashion Students Do After Delta

Jennavave Barbero — Fashion design consultant in New York City
Jonathan Singer — Costume designer and Collection Design instructor at Delta College.
Jennifer Rocha — Assistant Production Manager for Banana Republic in New York City
Billy Ola Hutchinson — Assistant store manager of Gump's in San Francisco
Amy Seiffert — Manager of Crossroads Trading Co. in Stockton.
Jennifer Nesbitt — Owner of City Gril Boutique in Lodi
Cathy Lagorio — Owner of Wish List Boutique in Stockton
Source: Leslie Asfour

Though he's inspired by music, paintings, film and other designers, Lima says the ultimate concept of a design is always his own.

"Inspiration has to come from yourself," he said.

Designing wasn't something Lima always dreamt of doing. It was only because his mother wanted him to go to college that he started classes at Delta.

"I was a drum major for a day," said Lima, who remembers himself as the "big fat flute, piccolo, oboe, percussion" player at Lodi High School.

Working at Crossroads Trading Company — a used clothing store — for three and a half years gave him more of an appreciation for every element of clothing — from its patterns and materials to pairing it with other pieces.

On a whim, he enrolled in a sewing class in the Family and Consumer Sciences department.

"I went into beginning sewing and they couldn't get me out of the room," Lima said.

With a declared fashion major and a new sense of what he wanted in life, Lima enrolled in the collections class that would push him to create Spectacle, a collection that reflected both himself and an overall theme.

Lima is bound for Long Beach State, where he will study fashion design before striving to become the do-it-all professional he wants to be.

"I want to be a huge fashion mogul," he said. "I want to do all the hair and make-up and make the clothes for my fashion show."

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