IF YOU GO
WHAT: Shemin Family Lecture Series featuring Cibeline Sariano
WHERE: The Warehouse Auditorium
WHEN: Wednesday, 3:30 p.m.
HOW MUCH: Free

Melding the left and right sides of the brain together, the Shemin Family Lecture Series will host Boston-based fashion designer and Syracuse University fashion design alumna Cibeline Sariano on Wednesday. She will cover the entire spectrum of the fashion industry by speaking about the production and design aspects of the profession.

Sariano, an SU graduate from the Class of 1996 and a sister of Delta Delta Delta, owns her own namesake boutique and custom studio in the upscale shopping district of Beacon Hill in Boston. The 35-year-old started her own business in 2002.

Sariano has experience in both the design and merchandising aspects of fashion, she said.

She plans to talk about the internships she had while at SU and the effect they had on her career goals. ‘It was just a moment of clarity for me, at 19 years old, to have that experience interning, and to be able to turn around and go back to college and implement that into my senior collection was truly immeasurable,’ she said.

Laura Vientos, a senior fashion design major, said she is curious to hear about those internships and the advice she has to offer.

‘I’m interested in what kind of internship experience she had and what her design interests were right out of college,’ she said.

Vientos has attended the past three Shemin lectures and found them all to be valuable in different ways. ‘Thai Nguyen was especially helpful. He had the best advice because it was coming from a younger designer who I can relate to,’ she said.

After her lecture, Sariano will return to campus on Thursday to privately view and critique several senior collections, which is a tradition of the Shemin series.

‘I’ll be working with each designer and giving my feedback,’ she said.

The lecture series, now in its third year, was established to host two SU alumni per semester who have achieved success in both business and fashion design.

‘The purpose of the series is to bring young alumni back to speak about their experiences and talk about what lessons they would give, in order to help students now,’ said fashion design professor Karen Bakke.

The lecture series is a collaboration between the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. It is unique in that is focuses on the business aspect of fashion, which draws both fashion design students as well as those majoring in retail management.

Jeffrey Mayer, who heads the fashion design department, will informally interview Sariano. She will give an overview of her experience and the process she went through to become a business owner.

Sariano said she praises Mayer for taking the program to new levels. She also said she looked forward to the questions in the interview.

‘I think Professor Mayer is going to ask a lot of poignant questions because he obviously knows the students so well and what they might be interested in knowing,’ Sariano said.

Looking back on her time at Syracuse, Sariano said she remembers certain guest speakers vividly. ‘We had Tommy Hilfiger and Mary McFadden come in and speak to us,’ she said. ‘And I just wanted to soak in everything. Hilfiger walked around, came down to our studio and saw what we were doing and answered questions.’

Sariano said she hopes that her lecture will benefit those who attend Wednesday. ‘I think what’s going to be really great for students is that I’m young enough that I think people can identify with me,’ she said.

aeorjel@syr.edu

Published on March 29, 2010 at 12:00 pm