Column: Iconic Lowcountry spots used as backdrop for fashion designer Savannah Fender's first line

Before the Internet lost its mind Thursday night over the color of "the dress," Radford University design student Savannah Fender didn't yet know the significance of what she was looking at.

"I just thought someone was showing me a dress," she said Friday. "I started by seeing black and blue. Once I got home and saw it on the Internet again, I was weirded out by scrolling up and down and seeing a change between black and blue and gold and white. (It) really messed with my head and my eyes. I almost thought it was a video trick."

As the Atlantic's Megan Garber writes, "the Rorschach dress has brought us together; it has divided us; it has caused us to question the physical world and our place within it."

On Thursday, social media immediately sorted itself into Team Black and Blue or Team Gold and White, led by the certitude of our own realities and our natural desire to belong and exclude. It doesn't take much to imagine a dystopian future in which we're governed by the colors we see when forced to look at shreds of fabric locked in a glass sarcophagus lorded over by the meaner of the two teams (ahem, The Black and Blues).

Fender, who is getting ready for her first runway show at Knoxville Fashion Week on March 5, was inspired by a different kind of examination of political and social structure -- William Golding's "Lord of the Flies." Her collection, which she is calling Beastie in reference to the "Beast," an unseen evil menace that the boys believe lives in the woods of the island they're marooned on, includes 50-some pieces that make up 10 outfits.

The boys fear the beast, but "there isn't actually a beast out there," Fender said. "It's the beast within you."

Fender's line, SavFen, is also inspired by her love of the outdoors. She recently staged a photo shoot for her fall collection at Fort Fremont and on Hunting Island, two places she knows well from summers spent on Harbor Island and both of which provide a fitting backdrop for clothes that were designed to capture the roughness and innocence in Golding's book.

Each look is an organic creation, seemingly manifested from the Lowcountry wild; the model herself -- in warpaint-like makeup -- appears feral but self-sufficiently stylish, as though she's been living alone among the fallen palm trees and Spanish moss for years and has no need of being rescued.

To punctuate her line, Fender uses a variety of fabrics, some quilted, some reversible, some angular, some inspired by winery curtains and even incorporates utilitarian features like parachute cords and a fanny pack. Her cousin helped by designing jewelry out of twigs and bleached deer teeth.

"Definitely not what I'm used to working with," Fender's cousin told her (one can't help but picture the poor cousin reaching for those deer teeth with tongs).

Textile and texture are important to Fender, who when most kids were heading out to piano lessons was at her neighbor's house learning to sew dresses, purses and tutus for her friends. Though she started out designing outfits for her Barbies, the 21-year-old sees herself as more of a tomboy now, someone who craves the tactile and the rugged.

"I feel like I kind of lean toward men's wear looks and I like to bring them over into a women's wear look. I feel like that's really in style right now."

Fender is in her senior year at Radford and is considering grad schools. She hopes one day to build a textile manufacturing plant in the United States, so she can help up-and-coming designers "bring their ideas to life" and, of course, do so while being close to home.

As for "the dress," in the end, Fender has decided it's gold and white.

"Just thought it looked prettier that way."

Follow columnist and senior editor Liz Farrell at twitter.com/elizfarrell or facebook.com/elizfarrell.

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This story was originally published February 27, 2015 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Column: Iconic Lowcountry spots used as backdrop for fashion designer Savannah Fender's first line."