Alum wins design competition

Kristin Caskey ’84, won first place in the international Peacock Standard Thai Silk Design Competition. The competition was co-sponsored by Thailand’s Queen Sirikit Institute of Sericulture and the International Textile and Apparel Association.

The purpose of the competition is to showcase the Thai government’s “Peacock Standard” for Thai silk. The standard was established by Queen Sirikit and bears the Royal Peacock logo.

Caskey said of her design:

Imagine a woman of any age, traveling for business or pleasure. The components I have created offer a flexible elegance. The pieces can be cut in any combination of colors and patterns. The vest can be worn over jeans and a T-shirt, the dress as a coat, the top and pant with heels for an evening out. Each component is viable on it’s own, or as the layered look I have styled.

The first round of judging was from digital images and a written abstract describing the design process and techniques. During the second round, the top eight designs were judged in Bangkok. All of the finalists’ designs were presented in a runway fashion show during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Collaboration on Sericulture Research and Development Conference the week of Aug. 23-27, in which Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Thailand and Dr. Pimpen Vejjajiva, the wife of Thailand’s Prime Minister, were in attendance.

Caskey received a bachelor’s of special studies from Cornell College in 1984 with her concentrations in art and biology.  She credits Stephen Lacey’s Shakespeare play course with her decision to pursue fashion design. She later received a bachelor’s in fashion design from Parsons School of Design in NYC and an MFA in print/media from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Caskey is an Associate Professor in the department of fashion design and merchandising at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. She has practiced as a designer for Perry Ellis, Arlequin Inc, and Urban Outfitters and has exhibited widely as an artist, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Fathoming, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, and Cage d Oiseaux in Vezelay, France.