January 25, 2016

January 25, 2016 — While a Fashion Design graduate student last year, Sheri Chang’s futuristic collection received the Joan Shepp award for Design Innovation. Now an alum of the program, Chang’s designs have also been selected for display in the window-front of Joan Shepp’s Center City boutique at 18^th and Chestnut, where they were installed this month. Chang, whose multidisciplinary work explores the reinvention of natural patterns through digital techniques, is a CFDA+ 2015 Design Graduate, an honor awarded for exceptional design vision, unique talent and diverse, professional potential. Chang’s innovative designs play with the idea of clothes as a “second skin,” mimicking the elaborate chamber structures of ancient organisms.

Ms. Chang’s garments are inspired by Foraminifera—amoeba that produce external shells in diverse shapes—recreating growth and deterioration to imply human metamorphosis. Chang juxtaposes traditional garment patterns with the digital design process to fabricate these 3D forms. In November 2015, her pieces were included in a large scale exhibition of emerging artists and designers in Taiwan. She is also the recipient of the Destination Maternity Award for Most Creative Graduate Collection, the Pearl Miller Carpel Award for Best Design and the Joan Calabrese Award for Best Children’s Wear.

Chang’s designs will remain on display through February 4 in the window-front of Joan Shepp, which opened as a concept shop, and a catalyst in Philadelphia’s changing retail landscape, in 2014. Shepp has long been recognized as a self-made fashion icon, dressing the city’s “most fabulous,” as the Inquirer has written, for 40 years.