The 22nd annual Iowa State University Textiles and Clothing Fashion Show takes place tonight and Saturday in Ames. This year’s featured guest is Holly Hynes, a graduate of Coe College in Cedar Rapids who works as director of costumes for the New York City Ballet. About three years ago students linked up with her at the NYC ballet and she gave them a tour of her costume shop — and the students in turn asked her to return to Iowa and be guest of honor at the fashion show they put in at the end of every semester. Her hectic schedule prevented it until this year, and Hynes arrived in town today. The theatrical designer says costumes have a lot to teach the young fashion designers. A lot of them are interested in textiles, marketing garments, and in a smaller, more intimate way those things are happening at drama and ballet companies across the companies, where she says they “manufacture something from scratch,” turning an artistic concept into an art form. A theme of the fashion show is “Re-Inventing the Past, Rejuvenating the Old,” and Hynes says there’s nothing wrong with “retro” fashions that bring back older styles. She makes a comparison to dance, since with “only so many ballet steps,” a good choreographer has to combine them in new ways, and says that happens in fashion as well. The fashion show’s at 7-30 tonight and Saturday in the Fisher Theatre at Iowa State Center in Ames.
