Glitz, glamour, passion: Fashion students shine in showcase, runway show

The Fashion Merchandising and Design program ended the spring semester with two celebrations of glitz, glamour and passion that prompted a visiting New York fashion industry executive to call the events “nothing short of spectacular.”

The first event, a showcase held in Benbow Hall, offered examples of fashion merchandising student projects over the course of the spring semester.

“This has been really exciting for us,” said Devona Dixon, Ph.D., associate professor for the fashion merchandising program. “This is a great opportunity to show what our students are capable of doing and to showcase the talent and resources we have, as well as the technology.”

During the showcase, the halls of Benbow were decorated with blue and gold streamers and lined with posters and glass displays of student designs and program highlights, including a digital textile printing collaboration with the Child Development Laboratory and a March study tour in New York City.

The showcase was supported by the program’s recent $100,000 award from The Gap and ICON 360’s “Closing the Gap” initiative, the philanthropic arm of Harlem’s Fashion Row. The award additionally funded new computers and equipment in the design lab; student scholarships; funding for 20 new dress forms and a stipend to bring an executive in residence to campus, as well as the study tour in New York.

“A lot of times, people think that fashion is easy, that it’s just about styling and so forth. We wanted to show that it’s more than that,” said Geetika Jaiswal, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the fashion merchandising program. “There’s a lot of technicalities that go into fashion designing that we wanted to highlight, and at the same time, we wanted to showcase the students’ work so they get the confidence of creating and presenting those projects.”

The second event, a runway fashion show hosted by Fashion X-Cetera, a student organization open to all students interested in fashion and the arts, directly followed in Harrison Auditorium. With music, audience participation and lights on display, student models – including child participants from the Child Development Lab – walked the stage in fabrics designed for the night’s theme, Black Renaissance.

“I wanted to highlight the Black designers who didn’t get that spotlight, either because of the time that they entered the profession or because they faded into the light,” said Fashion X-Cetera President Amberatta Faulkner, who picked the theme.

According to Faulkner, each student designer selected their inspired stylist at random, choosing from a box of 46 potential names.

“The fun thing about it was nobody knew who their designer was going to be,” Faulkner said. “There was an educational purpose: To make (the students) look up who the designer is, what designs they’d made, whether they had ever styled anyone famous … we basically had a variety of different designers from the old school and the new school.”

Fashion merchandising showcase attendees look at students’ designs and work at the Student Showcase held before the fashion show.

Felita Harris, chief strategy and revenue officer for Harlem’s Fashion Row and ICON360, attended both events and provided the keynote address at the fashion show.

“The fashion show was inspiring and proved that students could thrive if given creative freedom, instruction and financial resources,” she said. “The showmanship, talent, and diversity of entertainment created an electrifying experience.  I appreciated the evening beyond words.”

Elizabeth Newcomb-Hopfer, Ph.D., associate professor in the department, was a co-advisor on the runway show and served as draping instructor for the student designers.

“There’s a lot of work behind the scenes that goes along with the glitz and the glamour of the fashion show and the garments that you see on the runway,” she said. “I really want anyone watching to appreciate all of that work that went into it from the students and the program, just knowing that there’s a lot of great potential coming out of North Carolina A&T in fashion merchandising and design.”