Teresa Field was born and raised in the Bay Area suburb of Los Altos, and attended Stanford University, completing her undergraduate degree in Art History.

Teresa Field
Teresa Field

While earning her Masters of Fine Art Degree in Fashion Design at the Academy of Art University, she also worked as a design assistant at Gr.Dano in San Francisco and spent six months as the assistant to the Head Designer at Diane von Furstenberg in New York City.

Field’s Fall 2013 collection was inspired by artistic representations of the human body, including graphic representations of human anatomy and musculature, as well as process sketches from H.R. Giger’s “Alien”.

She collaborated with Textile Designer James Thai, who created custom leather textiles for the collection, and jewelry designer Leah Aripotch.

James Thai grew up in Danville, California just 30 minutes away from San Francisco. After graduating from Monte Vista High School, he attended the Academy of Art University’s Pre-College Program before enrolling in the School of Fashion’s undergraduate Textile Design program.

James Thai
James Thai

Over the summer, Thai worked as a product development intern at Ralph Lauren in New York City, where his Creative Intern Project was selected for presentation to the company’s senior board members.

He created custom leather textiles for Teresa Field’s collection, burning the leather to create blended imagery of flora and fauna.

Leah Aripotch was born and raised in Montauk, New York and moved to San Francisco to attend the Academy of Art University and earn her Bachelor of Fine Art degree in Sculpture.

She collaborated with Teresa Field and James Thai, creating jewelry and embellishments for the collection. Aripotch was inspired by the work of her collaborators, incorporating themes from their work into her own.

Leah Aripotch
Leah Aripotch

She was particularly interested in the mixture of structural geometric shapes with more organic elements, and focused her collection on the figure of the snake. She cast her pieces in bronze, brass, and copper metals.

Teresa Field, James Thai, Leah Aripotch Graduation Collection
Fall 2013 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center
Friday, February 8, 2013 at 8:00 PM