Photo by Diane Anderson
Audra Noyes stands alongside her winning designs.
The World Chess Hall of Fame partnered with the Saint Louis Fashion Fund to host Pinned! A Designer Chess Challenge. The six fashion fund designers competed to create the first-ever chess uniform. Audra Noyes was announced as the winner at last evening’s Sinquefield Cup opening ceremonies. The World Chess Hall of Fame awarded her a $10,000 prize.
The two garments designers were asked to complete for the challenge include one to be actually worn by a player, and the other an avant-garde piece. Designer Audra Noyes’ avant-garde piece draws inspiration from the queen chess piece by incorporating strong power colors and Swarovski crystals. While creating her utilitarian piece, Noyes says she “focused on pushing the boundaries, but also making sure it is approachable and wearable.”
Audra Noyes worked with chess grandmaster Maurice Ashley. “He really challenged my concept from the beginning,” Noyes says of Ashley. “Our concept was very much focused on two worlds colliding. That the history of the queen embodied the rook and the bishop, and when they collided to create the piece of the queen, they encompass something more powerful and harmonizing.”
Photo by Diane Anderson
From left to right, designs by Emily Brady Koplar, Audra Noyes, Charles Smith II, Reuben Reuel, Allison Mitchell, and Agnes Hamerlik
“Maurice challenged me to really focus on functionality over any frivolous design element, making sure everything was there with a purpose,” Noyes says. She adds the intention of the pinstriped blazer is to “bring back the class and the luxury of the game of chess.” While designing, she considered the concept of the uniform being worn from the ranking of grandmaster to a high school team, as well as by male and females.
“I think I am really just excited for the next step," she says, "to actually see if we can put this uniform into production and build out and solidify a branding for chess in garments.”
When asked how it felt to be named the winner of the competition, Noyes says, “It's an honor for me. There was such a high caliber of work shown last night. It is an accreditation and validation to your work to be recognized in that fashion.”
She said that the $10,000 prize is “such an immense blessing for a young company like mine.” She plans to use some of it toward the costs of her upcoming New York Fashion Week show.
The judging panel for Pinned! included chess grandmaster Eric Hansen, fashion designer and DJ Timo Weiland, professor of design and fashion studies and research chair of fashion at Parsons School of Design Dr. Hazel Clark, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch fashion editor Debra Bass.
