California Design 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way
MIT Press, 2011
Hardcover, 360 pages, $60

Fashion Design and Visual Studies faculty member Melissa Leventon contributes the essay "Distinctly Californian: Modernism in Textiles and Fashion" to this catalogue, which accompanied a major exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the first comprehensive examination of California's mid-century modern design. The book includes 350 images (most in color) of furniture, ceramics, metalwork, architecture, graphic and industrial design, film, textiles, and fashion, and 10 incisive essays that trace the rise of the California design aesthetic, from specific design influences and innovations in solid-color commercial ceramics to inspirations from Mexico and Asia, new schools for design training, new concepts about leisure, and the conversion of wartime technologies to peacetime use.

What's your favorite piece of clothing? As we've learned from our forays into street fashion, every treasured scarf, worn-out t-shirt, and hand-me-down skirt has a story. Most fashionistas could give an itemized tour of their closets, describing when each piece was bought and how it was worn. These stories may seem inane -- we wonder, Why can I remember this and not my parents' birthdays? -- but now they're being granted a higher purpose in the Local Wisdom project.

Watching their Carnaval float moving down Mission Street as part of San Francisco's massive annual parade, laden with dancers from the Brazilian troupe Sambaxé, accompanied by the vibrant beats of the Brazilian musical group Blocura and the powerful moves of the Brazilian ABADA Capoeira troupe, TV cameras rolling, people cheering from the sidewalks and the rooftops high above. . . It was a triumphant moment for CCA faculty member Sandra Vivanco and the 15 students in her Body and Spectacle course.

The Carnaval parade was the culmination of a semester of hard work and intensive collaboration -- not only among the CCA students, but also in coordination with a group of high school students enrolled in the Out of Site Youth Arts Center, the city of San Francisco, experts in construction and transportation, and beyond. The CCA course was offered under the auspices of Diversity Studies and attracted a correspondingly wide-ranging bunch, from Architecture and Interior Design to Graphic Design, Illustration, Fashion Design, and Painting/Drawing.

The students designed not only the Carnaval float structure, but also the costumes and props that made its appearance in the parade a real performance rather than just a potential site for one. They had done as much work as they could in the CCA shops, and then transported the pieces to Pier 40, where the city graciously donated space for final assembly.

CCA's sold-out 2012 Annual Fashion Show, a favorite among the numerous commencement-week events held at the college, took place Friday, May 11. The runway presentation, held inside a trademark tent in front of the main building on the San Francisco campus, is the program's capstone event of the year and serves to showcase the innovative thesis collections built by senior Fashion Design students.