Fanfare: Material Worlds fashion show combines fashion and technology

If the line that cut its way through the lobby of the Ace Hotel wasn't indicative of just how piqued the interest was for the Carnegie Museum of Art's Material Worlds fashion show, the panicked, last-minute pleas for an in surely were.

"I got a million texts from people trying to get tickets," said the hotel's senior sales manager, Anna Baird.

A nod to the museum's "Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion" haute couture exhibit, a sold-out venue packed with 300 awaited looks by ten local artists and designers that were created under a breakneck timeframe.

"Well, we were given three weeks so we're hoping everything stays together for the show," laughed Atticus Adams of his metal mesh designs.

Such unconventional materials was just the point. Each structural fabrication incorporated a seemingly bizarre yet remarkably brilliant utilization of things like rockite, plaster, 3-D printed modules, and hand cut, heat-formed Plexiglass panels to embody van Herpen's avant-garde aesthetic.

"She uses materials in so many interesting ways and technology in so many interesting ways," said CMOA's Laura McDermitt, the show's creator. "What you're going to see tonight will blow your mind."

With standing room-only crowding the runway, dancers from LevelUp spiked energy levels before the runway launched under the brilliance of a lighting design by LUXE Creative's Martin Potoczny.

"Pittsburgh is growing up in a lot of ways, which is cool," said Evelyn Castillo. "This is a New York type of party."

Artists/designers included Rachel Muse, Lea Albaugh, Memphis George, Stephanie Moye, Brandon Darreff and Zain Islam-Hashmi, Sarah Jane Sindler, Richard Chou and Chengcheng Zhao, Julianne D'Errico, So-Hee Woo. Amongst the crowd were Revive Marketing's Eileen French and Jack Bellas, Helene Finegold, Ginny Rothschild, Mary Margaret Stamy, Erin and Jeff Cohen, Stephen Rector, Alfredo Alvarez, Paul Purdy and David Onufer.