Attendees of Lascivious Ball were able to witness Catherine Gao’s first official show. As she stood behind the curtains, Catherine—also referred to as Cat—watched her dresses, crafted from silk and lace, adorn her five models who strutted their stuff down the floor of Ida Noyes.
Fashion is a fairly new endeavor to the 2nd year North Carolina native who had never received formal instruction. Catherine first became interested in fashion around 5th grade and amused herself by drawing sketches of outfits. Yet it wasn’t until her senior year of high school that Cat decided to transform her sketches into tangible pieces that could be worn. As the main apprentice for the costume designer of the school musical, Cat learned basic stitches and how to work a sewing machine. She then used her new abilities to make clothing for her sister and friends.
These days Cat obsesses over legendary French designer and his eponymous fashion house, Christian Dior. She admires Dior’s ability to create lavish, high fashion garments in addition to ready-to-wear pieces. When Cat needs a bout of inspiration, she enjoys browsing the Dior website and gawking at the collections, noting the intricate construction and detail of the clothing. As of lately, high fashion has become of more interest to Cat. The craftsmanship required to produce haute couture elicits feelings of awe and respect from this developing designer.
Like Dior, Cat would ideally like to straddle the realms of ready-to-wear fashion and haute couture. In addition to creating pieces that could be worn casually to class, Cat wishes to add pieces to her collection that could be presented in more formal settings. In last year’s Mr. University hosted by Kappa Alpha Theta, a sister/presenter asked to wear one of Catherine’s dresses, a silver dress embellished with a bow, a favor Cat was more than willing to do since it provided her with some free publicity.
Cat describes the clothing she displayed at Lascivious as being both sexy and classy, her pieces showing a little skin but in an intriguing way. Though her current collection is comprised mostly of dresses, Cat hopes to venture into the world of jackets, pants, and even menswear.
Her outlook on fashion is one that is “not too serious” and instead, more creative and fun. Fashion should not only be about draping clothes on a body; it can act as an art form. In fact, Cat plans on submitting several pieces for the Max Arts exhibit held by the Max Palevsky Residence Hall. Later in the year, you might see her collection on the runway at the MODA spring show.
However, as of now, Cat has no intention to sell her pieces or make a career out of fashion, mostly because she enjoys partaking in the entire design process from choosing the fabrics to fitting the models. When it comes down to it, Cat believes that fashion is about embracing the way you feel in clothing and most importantly, enjoying yourself.