RFH Graduate Stephen Biga Presents "Erothe" Clothing Design Exhibit at AMO Studios in New York City

Stephen Biga, a 2010 graduate of Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, recently presented an exhibit entitled "Erothe" at AMO Studios in New York City.

"Erothe" ran from June 20-22 and featured clothing designed to evoke the predicament of Japanese-Americans imprisoned on the West Coast of the United States during World War Two.

Stephen combined his love of history and his passion for design to create the pieces for the exhibit, whose title is an imagined past tense of the phonetic combination of "erode" and "writhe" -- two verbs that, according to the designer, constitute the physicality and fragility of human memory.

The collection featured 18 pieces of ready-to-wear clothing and nine accessories including leather goods and handmade ceramic jewelry. All of the pieces reflected Stephen's desire to "mix the femininity of Japanese culture with the masculinity of archetypal Americana."

"By pairing Japanese floral prints with Western-style baseball uniform pinstripes and men's suiting, I was able to capture the disconnect that occurred between these two cultures during World War II -- in part by creating an aesthetic identity that was not allowed to exist entirely," he said.

Before designing any of the pieces, Stephen spent countless hours performing library research and creating images from photographs of the more than 127,000 Japanese-Americans held in Internment Camps. He then created paper doll-type cutouts based on the prisoners' clothing, and placed the cutouts into a collage which inspired his completed designs.

"By using actual historical photographs, I was able to drive the shapes of the clothing silhouettes in a way that was not arbitrary," said Stephen. "And the creation of a collage allowed me to develop original garments for the collection using my own textiles and fabric treatments."

Stephen graduated as a Chase Scholar from Parsons the New School of Design in New York City with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Design. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Culture and Media Studies at Eugene Lang The New School for Liberal Arts in New York City.

While studying fashion, he has worked with the design, pattern-making, and production teams at Rodarte and Proenza Schouler in Los Angeles and New York City.

Stephen is the son of Suzanne and Thomas A. Biga of Fair Haven.

For additional information on Stephen's exhibit and on AMO Studios, visit www.erothe.com or www.amostudios.biz.