Jefferson Fashion Students Win Joan Shepp’s Holiday Window Display Competition

The holiday season is always a time for celebration, and Jefferson Fashion Design students are giving Philadelphia a little more to celebrate this December. Joan Shepp invited teams from local area colleges to participate in a design competition for their holiday window display This iconic designer boutique has been a Philadelphia fashion fixture since 1971 and continues to push the city’s fashion community forward. Presenting their designs directly to boutique owners, Jefferson’s student team received the first-place award for their display. The team consisted of Fashion Design students Rebecca Shustack (’22), Mahdiya Trudeau-Williams (’22), and Lauren Schuler (’23), alongside Fashion Merchandising & Management students Alayna Norville (’24) and Emily Keen (’24), with Professor Kim Rosner from the Fashion Design department serving as team mentor. The window, titled “Bring the Glitz, Share the Glamour” will be on display for the month of December at Joan Shepp’s boutique located at 1811 Chestnut Street.

Left to Right: Emily Keen (FMM ’24), Mahdiya Trudeau-Williams (FD ’22), Lauren Schuler (FD ’23), Professor Kim Rosner, Rebecca Shustack (FD ’22), and Alayna Norville (FMM ’24).

For the “Bring the Glitz, Share the Glamour”, the Jefferson team stayed true to Joan Shepp’s legacy and aesthetic while also presenting their own unique viewpoint. “We really wanted to encapsulate the fun, festive energy of ‘holiday’ without the more traditional red, green, and gold color palette,” junior fashion design student Lauren Schuler explains. “To us, a rich purple, black, and silver color palette felt new, fresh, and gave the glamorous feel we were envisioning.” For many of the students participating, this was their first real experience designing for a client. Taking feedback from Joan and Ellen Shepp along with their visual merchandising team, students tweaked and perfected the design until they had something that felt unique and glamourous, while also staying true to the boutique’s aesthetic.

Jefferson’s winning Holiday Window for Joan Shepp.

The entire display took only two days to construct, with all hands-on deck working to suspend objects, dress mannequins, arrange vignettes, and finalize execution. The final result is an effortlessly glamorous tableau of graphically wrapped packages, disco balls, exploded stars, champagne bottles bursting with pearls, and dangling sparkles throughout. Party-goers dressed in shimmering, festive attire mingle amongst party leftovers, with one mannequin even displaying a lampshade head. Next to her, a tower of champagne glasses overflowing with stands of pearls and diamonds dripping from a suspended hand, adding a surrealist element to the sophisticated glamour within. Check out some photos from the window’s opening event below, and be sure to stop by Joan Shepp in the next few weeks to see the students’ work for yourself!