Brookline Designer Makes the Cut

Long before Golden Skyy, a fashion design student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, entered the Humane Society’s Cool vs. Cruel Competition, he was taking a stand against using animal products in fashion.

While attending a design school in Japan, he and his classmates had to use fur in a project.

“I took a zero in that class and did an alternative,” he said. “I love animals. I never was interested in working with fur.”

And he’s done just fine without it.

The 31-year-old Brookline resident recently placed third in the national design contest that the Humane Society holds in conjunction with the Art Institutes.
The contest encourages Art Institute students to design fashions that don’t use animal products.

A student from each school is selected to advance to the national finals. In the finals, Skyy placed in the top tier, as did second place winner Matthew Vice of from the Art Institute of Dallas and the Art Institute of Vancouver's Johana Zara, who came in first.

Skyy was thrilled to win.

"It was an experience,” he said. “It was also fun--and hard, hard work.”

Instead of using fake fur or other materials that mimic animal products, Skyy says, he took a different approach.

Incorporating two talents of his parents, beading and tailoring, he created what he describes as a dress merged into a tailored suit.

“The whole concept behind tailoring,” he said, “is you building from within to create a flawless exterior.”

He sewed more than 3,000 black bugle beads onto the dress by hand and added 64 ruffled tiers. The final product is feminine but bold, combining the sleek and intricate.

Michelle McDonald, the Human Society of the United States Fur-Free Campaign Fashion Outreach Manager said Skyy’s winning entry was selected out of 18 finalists.

More than 200 students initially entered the contest this year.

“Golden Skyy’s entry,” McDonald says, “shows designers like Gucci, Fendi, Alexander McQueen and Oscar de la Renta that using animal fur is unnecessary and that beautiful designs can be created without causing animal suffering.”

For Skyy, beautiful designs are a part of his life from idea to execution.

“I do everything,” he said. “I’ve gotten awards for my illustrations. I’m actually certified by a board in Japan as a master seamstress. Tailoring, bead work, pattern drafting, CADD, I can do it all.”

He has been taking ideas from his head to the runway as he studied at various schools, among them Parsons The New School for Design in New York city and a design school in Japan.

A Pittsburgh transplant, by way of New Mexico and California, Skyy found his way to the area at a fortunate time -- not long after he settled in Brookline, the Art Institute of Pittsburgh started its design program.

“I jumped in and just kind of went from there,” he says. “I guess it was just one of those meant to be things.”