First Annual Judith Hendler Design Awards
Earlier this year, Judith Hendler was helping the Huntington Beach Art Center with their 25th Anniversary Celebration with an exhibition to showcase work of local community college art students. Due to forced closure as part of the state-ordered COVID-19 lockdown, Judith Hendler, didn’t want to let down the fashion design students who were already busy with their creations for the exhibition. With the help of Kate Hoffman (HB Art Center’s Executive Director) and Lauren Becker (Fashion Program Coordinator at Orange Coast College), the fashion design portion still took place, thus creating the First Annual Judith Hendler Fashion Design Awards.
16 students from five local community colleges (Fullerton, Long Beach, Orange Coast, Saddleback, and Santa Ana) submitted their fashion designs inspired by three Judith Hendler necklaces. The students were asked to create a garment that embodied the ethos of sustainable design: re-use, recycle, and upcycle. Judith Hendler reviewed the student’s creations and choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner.
“The design and fabrication of a garment is an intense and time-consuming endeavor. It takes a lot of thought, planning and work to end up with a finished garment. And in this case, it was further challenged by the restrictions of materials, all of which had to be recycled. I was impressed with the all of the students use, not only of recycled fabric from a variety of sources but their final creations,” said Judith Hendler.
