Student Designers Gain Practical Experience with Fashion for Life

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Alabama apparel design students took center stage recently at Fashion for Life while raising awareness of metastatic breast cancer.

The charitable fashion show featured the collections of 14 senior designers from the College of Human Environmental Sciences’ clothing, textiles, & interior design department.

“We had an incredibly talented group of design students who were excited to showcase their senior collections at Fashion for Life 2017,” said Brian Taylor, instructor of Advanced Apparel Design. “During this semester, they tirelessly worked, including late nights and weekends, on creating their designs.

“With all of this effort, they were especially enthusiastic to present their designs because the fashion show raised money for METAvivor Research and Support Inc. The students voted on this charity because one of their fellow student’s mother has been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. ”

For these design students, the fashion show was the culmination of four years of study and hard work. Designers started researching trends, finding inspiration, sketching and buying fabrics over the summer. On the first day of class in the fall, they began creating their collections making a garment every couple of weeks.

“This process included making original patterns, sewing test garments for fittings and, finally, sewing the looks out of the chosen fabrics,” said Taylor. “They had to style everything – come up with a hair and makeup concept, accessories and shoes, and they even picked their own music.”

The fashion show was much more than a demonstration of the students’ talent and flair for design. It required them to foster collaborative working relationships, use time management skills and other business know-how that will be required in the work environment once they graduate.

The show, which was open to students taking the final design course in the apparel and textile design major, is the main project for the course. It gave seniors an opportunity to express their design ideas to an audience that included their peers, family, friends and members of the community.

Collections were based on each student’s design philosophy and chosen target market. This year’s show included bridal, evening, career, casual and lounge wear.

The 14 designers were Meredith Anderson, of Marietta, Georgia; Olivia Boswell, of Memphis, Tennessee; Amanda Eidson, of Nashville, Tennessee; Marissa Fouladbakhsh, of Birmingham; Kaylon Graham, of Dothan; Effie Guenther, of Hastings, Michigan; Emily Heath, of Hillsboro, Oregon;  Olivia Howe, of Birmingham; Lauren Lansdell, of Huntsville; Brenna Marshall, of Benton, Arkansas; Madison Quattlebaum, of Slocomb; Kaitlin Rease, of Birmingham; Savannah Taylor, of Gadsden; and Chloe Whitney, of Birmingham.