The Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design annual Showcase of Excellence was held Thursday night at the K-State Alumni Center. The showcase is the kickoff event for the annual ATID student symposium.
The theme for this year’s showcase was “Thrive.” Faith Janssen, junior in apparel and textiles, said it emphasizes the connections and relationships that the College of Human Ecology focuses on.
Gigi Oste, sophomore in apparel and textiles was the co-director of this year’s showcase. She said that the while the show is all produced by college students, this year local businesses provided styling teams and donated accessories.
Before and after the runway show, there was a gallery displaying student work from both apparel and textiles and interior design. The gallery featured student design boards and garments modeled by students.
The runway show highlighted garments designed and sewn by apparel and textiles students. It was divided into three segments, and each segment was introduced by a video explaining the student project featured.
The first segment contained the K-State Tree Walk and the Runway to Rack pieces. The K-State Tree Walk pieces were simple wrap skirts made of muslin colored with dye made of leaves found on campus.
For Runway to Rack, students designed an innovative runway look and its commercial counterpart.
The second segment featured ready-to-wear garments including athleisure, career wear, casual wear and evening wear.
The final segment highlighted two student collections and garments inspired by the Janet Lee Rees collection at K-State’s Historic Costume and Textiles Museum.
The first student collection, “Lorraine” by Mason Burns, debuted at Portland Fashion Week in the fall of 2018. Burns, a senior in apparel and textiles, took the inspiration for his collection from menswear and easily recognizable silhouettes.
“Lorraine” contained mostly casual pieces with western, utilitarian influences.
The second collection, “L’Inverno” by Jaxson Metzler debuted at Kansas City Fashion Week in the spring of 2019. Metzler, a junior in apparel and textiles, drew his inspiration for his collection from the “Winter” concerto in Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.”
Related:
From ‘Project Runway: Junior’ to Kansas City Fashion Week: K-State sophomore shows a passion for fashion
“L’Inverno” contained primarily evening wear in darker colors and various textures. Models from Kansas City Fashion Week showcased the collection.
At the end of the showcase, faculty members announced awards for upper and lower runway divisions. Metzler won the lower division with “L’inverno,” and Andrada Redmond, senior in apparel and textiles, won the upper division with her collection, “Baransu Urban Balance.”
Metzler said his favorite part of the showcase is having the opportunity to see everyone’s completed work.
“Obviously I see the things that are in my class, but you don’t see the upperclassmen and the lower-classmen,” Metzler said. “It’s fun to see their creative work.”
