New York Fashion Designer Visits with Stephens Students

Pictured: Fashion designer Dayanne Danier critiques the work of Stephens junior Esli Navarro.

Dayanne Danier, a New York fashion designer with her own label, Bien Abyé (which means well dressed in Haitian Creole), recently spent two days at Stephens College interacting with students and critiquing their designs. Danier presented a "Photostyling" workshop to Graphic Design students and shared career advice. She also critiqued the career wear designs created by juniors in Stephens' School of Design and Fashion and later ate lunch with the students in Stamper Commons.

"The experience at Stephens was wonderful," Danier says. "The energy from the students was very positive, and they were so creative. Even though each student was designing to appeal to a specific client, it was obvious that her attitude and who she was as a person came through in her boards and presentations. As juniors, presenting can be very intimidating but they all did a great job. They turned their designs around in a quick time frame, and I was inspired to see that many of them had bold colors in their designs."

Danier is of Haitian decent, but grew up in Boston and attended the Massachusetts College of Art before working for Perry Ellis International in Miami and then Phillips-Van Huesen in New York. In her own collection, she uses bright, bold colors to honor her Haitian background. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, she traveled to the country to help with the relief effort and taught sewing to educators to help them teach their own students. She returned to Haiti a year later to teach pattern drafting and other construction techniques and is planning another trip soon.

Learn more:

Stephens' Fashion Department

Stephens' Graphic Design Department

In the Media:

Vox Magazine: Shopping with Dayanne Danier

Columbia Missourian: New York fashion designer visits Stephens College

Dayanne Danier with Stephens junior Amanda Glaze.

Dayanne Danier with Stephens junior Heather Johnston.

Stephens senior Charell Strong completed an eight-week summer internship with Dayanne Danier, working with her via email and telephone calls. The pair met for the first time when Danier visited the Stephens campus. Charell handled the New York fashion designer's social media, worked on her fall media outreach and wrote her press materials.

Critique photos by Caleb McMurry