Plaids, polka-dots, stripes and more strutted across the McCain Auditorium stage Thursday night. The women and men wore clothing created and designed by alumni and students, their inspirations projected on the screen behind each design.
Kansas State students from the Department of Apparel, Textiles and Interior Design, high school and middle school students had the opportunity to showcase their designs in the Showcase of Excellence, the kick-off event for the 14th annual ATID Student Symposium.
Student and alumni work was presented in the mounted exhibit in the William T. Kemper Exhibit or the Showcase of Excellence Runway show. The mounted exhibit will remain open until next Thursday. The exhibit has been open since Tuesday, but the showcase began with a reception there for attendees to eat cookies while they checked out the recycled wedding dress, the boards with individuals’ research and other presentations.Related:
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“[The showcase is] showing all the work we do in class,” Emily Andrews, senior in apparel, textile and design production, said. “We have to do a lot of design work, and it just allows people to see what we work on and the amount of work we have to do.”
Much of the work presented were class projects by students in the program, including original designs of clothing and reinterpreting others’ designs. Andrews said she and her classmates often talked about their work for the showcase, especially in regards to the sleep they lost over it, but it was her first time seeing much of it.
“Seeing everything is always so incredible,” Andrews said.
Andrews won the award of excellence in undergraduate research, which is on display in the mounted exhibit. Her team also won first place in the upper division runway category. She has participated in the showcase every year since her freshman year.
Submissions had to “get to the crux” and identify a problem the creators were addressing in a single sentence, according to the ATID Showcase of Excellence page.
“One of our main focuses this semester was ‘getting to the crux’ — expressing our ideas in a short amount of works,” Delaney Green, freshman in apparel and textiles marketing, said.
Today’s events will continue with a keynote speaker, Melea McRae, the founder and CEO of Crux, a marketing company in Kansas City, Missouri. There will also be a networking luncheon for students and professionals in the industry and various sessions for resume critiques and informational sessions.
The ATID Student Symposium serves to get students’ work out to the public and provide networking opportunities that allow students to interact with professionals “in a meaningful way,” said Barbara Anderson, head of the ATID department.
“[The showcase] challenges students to excel in their academic world,” Anderson said. “It’s a competitive edge to know that you’re doing it for more than just a grade.”
