Fashion show featuring designs of SU faculty members Todd Conover, Jeffrey Mayer to benefit Carriage House Foundation

Fashion show featuring designs of SU faculty members Todd Conover, Jeffrey Mayer to benefit Carriage House FoundationMarch 31, 2001Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Syracuse University faculty members and fashion designers Todd Conover and Jeffrey Mayer will present their Spring/Summer 2001 collection during an exclusive showing to benefit the Carriage House Foundation Inc. April 9 in the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Syracuse Radisson Plaza. The event will begin at 6 p.m. with cocktails, followed by a light supper and dessert at 7:15 p.m. and the fashion show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $50 and are available by calling 479-6681. Twenty-two SU students will participate in the fashion show, which is expected to draw some 300 people. Several of the students will be modeling alongside Juli Boeheim G’97, honorary chair for the show and wife of SU men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim; Carrie Lazurus ’80 of WIXT -TV, Channel 9; and Maureen Green G’81 of WTVH-TV, Channel 5. Mayer is an associate professor and Conover an instructor in the College for Human Development. Carmel Nicoletti, an instructor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, is the show’s choreographer. Fifteen students will be working backstage as dressers and general organizers, Mayer says. The students are from several SU schools and colleges, including the College for Human Development, the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Members of the Fashion Association of Design Students (FADS) in the College for Human Development are organizing the team of students who will be working backstage. “For most of us, this is our first show to help out with backstage,” says Carolyn Siegel, president of FADS and a freshman fashion design major in the College for Human Development. “I have no idea what it is going to be like, but I can imagine that it will be extremely busy and exciting.” FADS also helped the Carriage House Foundation make 1,500 invitations for the event. In addition to teaching at SU, Conover and Mayer operate a design studio located in the Delavan Center, 501 W. Fayette St. The Conover Mayer studio opened in 1995 “to continue the tradition of elegantly designed and cleverly cut American couture,” Mayer says.

The Conover Mayer Spring/Summer 2001 collection of daywear uses cotton khaki and silk broadcloth in simple but elegant styling of separates. The evening collection pays tribute to the great English actress Gertrude Lawrence, following her career through the 1920s and ’30s up to her untimely death in 1952. The collection includes low-waisted lace dresses, bias cut silk crepe and full-skirted taffeta ball gowns and evening pieces, all created in soft pastel colors. All of the pieces are accessorized with the creations of local jewelry designer Kate Jung and with antique jewels provided by Bruce Block of Antique Underground. As a design team, Conover and Mayer have designed and created wedding gowns for high-profile weddings and have done costume design for network television. They draw inspiration from their favorite past designers, including Christian Dior, Ceil Chapman, Norman Norell and Hubert Givenchy. The Carriage House Foundation Inc. (formerly the Corinthian Foundation Inc.) was founded in 1949 as a Women Membership Corp. to provide community services. The foundation operates the Carriage House Community Center, 343 Green St., which offers various activities and support programs for senior citizens, including the Carriage Cafe nutrition program; health screening and counseling services; fitness programs; and a community information, referral and coordination of services program for the homebound and frail elderly population.