Every Thursday since the start of the school year, junior fashion design majors have spent hours creating designs, making patterns and sewing, accumulating a minimum of 240 hours on their pieces.
On Thursday, May 8, 11 juniors from the BFA Fashion Design program showcased their designs in the “240hrs” show, named for the number of hours the students have put into their designs in the past school year. Students who participated in “240hrs” completed “Fashion Design Studio I” in the fall and “Fashion Design Studio II” this spring.
It is the second time the School of Fashion has hosted the showcase for juniors. More than 200 people were registered to attend the runway show this week at the Student Center.
Jenna Vandiver, a junior fashion design BFA major, was among the student designers whose pieces were showcased.
“I’d like to say that this was a big growing period for me because this is our first class where we have total freedom of our designs,” Vandiver said. “Everything that we do from the beginning feels a lot more tailored and sharp and has a true meaning behind everything.”
Each student presented three pieces from their collection: one new look for the show, a second look that built on their previous studio work and a final piece from their collection of works throughout the semester.
Vandiver said her designs embody nostalgia and self-expression. They explore the tension between nature and human impact while paying homage to Southern flora and fauna, highlighting her Alabama roots.
“The stress that goes into publicly displaying a piece is different than the stress that goes into minor critiques in a classroom setting,” Vandiver said. “You get used to the people and the professors you’re with when you’re in a classroom.”
Vandiver said opportunities like this prepare them for their senior year, when they will present more than eight looks at the end of the year.
Last year, the first student-led junior BFA fashion show, Fusion, was held at the Conaway Center at 1104 S. Wabash. The show was then hosted by Olivia Byam, who is now a senior fashion design BFA student.
Typically, juniors do not have the opportunity to present their designs at the end of the school year, unlike seniors who showcase their work at Manifest.
Bryannah Minor, a senior fashion design BFA major, was seated in the front row during the show, which was reserved specifically for senior BFA students.
Minor participated as a designer in last year’s culminating show. She noted that the show is important for juniors, as their work can sometimes be overlooked.
“More involvement with the faculty can be good because it’s less stress on the students, since we already do have work going on. But I feel that student-led events like the fashion show that we had last year could be more creative in a way because there are fewer limitations,” Minor said.
Lauren Downing Peters, an associate professor of fashion studies in the School of Fashion, said the show is entirely student-led, with support from her and her colleague, Julie Fehler-Render, acting as faculty facilitators.
“Within our curriculum, the BFA program really starts during the student’s third year, junior year, where they have the inclusion of this eight-hour-long studio,” Downing Peters said.
In these eight hours, students learn design thinking, advanced construction techniques and finding their voice as designers.
“A lot of our students always find it to be a very challenging but also very rewarding and a transformative experience, and this fashion show is really a celebration of their growth,” Downing Peters said.
Lizzy Fowlkes, a junior fashion design BFA student and also part of the show, said that having her collection shown next year would feel so final, so this show is important to her as it shows the journey that led her towards her thesis.
“It’s like a goodbye,” Fowlkes said. “Everything’s clean, everything’s polished, whereas something like this is showing our journey and our process and like things that may not necessarily fall into all one cohesive theme, or may not be fully finished all the way, or like the final stage of what we were sampling.”
Fowlkes’ pieces showcased sustainability through natural materials, mindfulness of environmental impact and the integration of beauty with functionality.
First-year marketing major Valentina Agudelo said she was blown away by the designs and how the models carried them on the runway.
“It’s a big culminating showcase of everything that they’ve done, and I feel like it’s very important for them to have the opportunity to show that with their fellow students and their friends and family,” Agudelo said.
Copy edited by Manuel Nocera
