History recreated to honor dress designer Hedy Strnad

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - History comes to life on Jan. 27 with a fashion show in Birmingham. Gus Mayer at the Summit is scheduled to host an event to honor apparel designer Hedy Strnad.

Strnad is a Jewish Czech designer who perished during the Holocaust, but some of her dress sketches survived and have been found. The Birmingham Holocaust Education Center with the help of the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee is putting on the project “Inspirations from the Past."

The fashion show will include dresses designed by University of Alabama students in the apparel and textile designs department in Tuscaloosa using Strnad’s sketches as the inspiration of the designs.

“Heddy’s designs are incredibly modern, considering she came up with the idea’s more than 80 years ago,” said Kaitlyn Sarao, a UA student. “She was definitely way ahead of her time in some of her concepts, and I am so glad that I have been made a part of this project to help bring Strnad’s legacy back to life.”

Doors for the fashion show open Sunday at Gus Mayer, the Summit. There is an additional opportunity to learn more about the Heddy Strnad story down at the UAB Abroms Engel Institute for the Visual Arts with an exhibit that is on showcase through March 16.

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