Fashion expands annual Senior Show

April 24, 2024 – DENTON – This year, the Texas Woman's University Division of Fashion Design and Merchandising's annual Senior Fashion Show is celebrating more than its senior designers.

In addition to students creating new garments in the Collection Design and Development course, this year's show is tapping into its Event Planning, Production Techniques and Retail Product Management courses.

"We have typically only shown fashion design garments and the work that the fashion design students produce for their capstone," said Remy Odukomaiya, MFA and lecturer I. "This year, we're including merchandising. All senior students taking fashion design and merchandising will be showing their work. It's good for the department because it shows a more rounded view of what we do, that we don't only make garments. We are also into the business of fashion. That's the very special thing about this year's show."

"It's blending design and merchandising, working together as it will happen in industry," said Anna Magie, PhD, associate professor and division head. "Designers and merchandisers are all interconnected. That's one of the great things about TWU that other universities don't do. A lot of other schools just design in one program, merchandise in another, maybe even fashion marketing in another. But we're all intertwined here, so I think it helps students when they graduate."

The 2024 show, Unearthed Auras, takes place Friday, May 3, on the first floor of the Blagg-Huey Library, and will include pop-up shops with storefronts and interiors organized, designed and stocked by TWU fashion students.

"They digitally designed stores with a storefront and interior, so they're taking on even interior design elements," Magie said. "They research a target market. Based upon their type of their store, they have to determine how many units of tops, how many bottoms, how many accessories go in that store, so there's space planning. They do planograms (display plans to maximize sales), and design a store logo."

"It's a full-blown production," Odukomaiya said. "It gives design students an idea of what it means to be in the business of fashion, even though they are only a little section of the industry. And the merchandising students understand how much work goes into producing the garments that they market."

"It's challenging, but it's amazing," Magie said. "It's such good interaction. I think this year there's been a really special group of students, too. They just get along well. They're managing their products, their tasks."

The pop-up shops will open at 5 p.m., followed by the runway show at 6:30.

The runway portion of the evening is expected to showcase 40 outfits.

"Some of the design students are doing street wear," Odukomaiya said. "We have some doing bridal, and we have one doing menswear. But it's a whole blend from day wear to evening."

There's another new element in this year's Senior Fashion Show: industry professionals. Representatives from fashion companies will attend the show to evaluate the students' work and to potentially recruit future employees. In the past, those evaluations have taken place in the Fashion division's offices and classrooms.

"We've got a wide range of industry professionals who come in and take a look at what the students do," Odukomaiya said. "It's been a great relationship between our department and those companies. We've actually had students secure internships and some long-term jobs."

In fact, combining design and marketing in the Senior Fashion Show displays the skills the industry needs.

"They're looking for creativity and for marketability in their designs," Odukomaiya said. "This is a business, and whatever you produce has to be marketable. You have to be able to sell it. They look for the student's ability to process information. Do you know who your target market is? What is your budget range in terms of your price points for those items? How are you branding it? Is it appealing to who your target market is? So there are a lot of, you know, small working parts that go into it. And for each company, they might look for something different, because of who their target market might be."

"And on top of all that, once they've learned all the techniques, then we also try to bring focus to skills such as project management, critical thinking, problem solving," Magie said. "A lot of problems certainly arise. Leadership, and just how they interact with one another. Because think about the workplace. Many students can graduate with the skills of knowing how to construct a garment, but not all of them can interact well. So that's our other piece we work on very diligently and to prepare them."

Among the students contributing to this year's Senior Fashion Show is Ninna Zarate, a dual degree major who will graduate with degrees in fashion merchandising and fashion design.

Senior Fashion Show: Unearthed Auras

Friday, May 3, 2024
Blagg-Huey Library, first floor
Retail market: 5-6:30 p.m.
Fashion show: 6:30-8 p.m.

Tickets:
$7 standing
$12 seated
$50 VIP bundle

Parking:
Look for the ParkMobile signs at visitor's parking spaces ($1.50 per hour)

For further information, contact Anna Magie, PhD, at amagie@twu.edu.