Behind the Scenes at Art to Wear 2011

“It’s an X-shaped runway. Walk to the right first. Stop. Count to fifteen: three poses, five seconds each. Take two steps back, turn. Go to the other side. Remember not to walk too fast.”

Bryan Bullard, a senior in Fashion and Textile Management, was one of thirteen designers for Art to Wear this year. His collection “Technologic” represented the “symbiotic merger of human beings and technology.” As his line progressed, the electroluminescent wiring and LED lights became more prominent, symbolizing the technological takeover of the human body.

Shadowing Bullard on show day started at 1:30 PM with hair and make-up at Atomic Salon. “I’ve never been in a salon for two hours before,” Taylor Dillon remarked, one of the four male models. His hair ended up spiked, containing approximately five different products when it was finished.

At 4:30 PM it was back to campus for pre-show photography. The models were instructed to put on their respective garments. When Bullard flipped the switch for the first garment, the wire didn’t light up. He got on his knees, rummaged through his suitcase for a new battery and replaced the old one, but the jeans still didn’t glow. “This cannot be happening right now!" Two and a half hours remained until show time.

“I’ll have to re-solder these wires, but my soldering iron is at home,” Bullard told himself in a surprisingly calm voice. Without missing a beat, he stood up, and with a question that MacGyver himself would be proud of, asked: “Does anybody have a lighter?”

The other models with their functioning clothes went ahead to be photographed as Bullard spent the time in an empty classroom with a pair of pliers, wire strippers, batteries, and a lighter trying to re-engineer his garment. He managed to get the left side of the jeans to glow, but the right remained dim. “Just photograph the back and the left side,” he told the photographer.

The photo shoot took longer than anticipated, and when the model with the half-lit jeans finished, it was 5:45 PM. They were supposed to be at Reynolds Coliseum, the show’s location, by 6:00 PM. During the trek, Bullard coddled the injured pair of jeans carefully on his right arm. Once backstage, he immediately got on his hands and knees and continued his work.

Backstage at Art to Wear was not as chaotic as one would think. Some models practiced their walks. Others clumped into groups and conversed. Cameras flashed from media photographers. And easily spotted were the designers, their stress and anxiety palpable across the room, as they adjusted the garments on their models. While the designers busied their hands with final touches, Bullard was on the floor, his right hand clutching pliers and his left holding the lighter.

Those who attended Art to Wear knew that Bullard's story had a happy ending; the first model hit the runway with jeans in full glow. An audible gasp emanated from the 3,500 attendants when the jeans’ blue wiring was shown on the big screen. Unbeknownst to the audience, what they saw was fixed only six minutes earlier. After the seventh model, Bullard followed the rest of the models back on stage, took a bow, waved to the audience, and—for the first time that day—smiled.

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Art to Wear NCSU College of Design Bryan Bullard Atomic Salon

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