{"id":30599,"date":"2022-09-09T15:41:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T19:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/?p=30599"},"modified":"2022-09-09T16:34:25","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T20:34:25","slug":"first-year-fashion-and-textile-design-class-challenges-students-to-think-like-designers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/2022\/09\/first-year-fashion-and-textile-design-class-challenges-students-to-think-like-designers\/","title":{"rendered":"First-Year Fashion and Textile Design Class Challenges Students to Think Like Designers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mary Giuffrida<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking into one of the first-year fashion and textile design classes you might find yourself in awe of just how many different ways there are to make a jacket. The students have harnessed colors and textures to create completely original takes on the same classic piece, and no two are alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The class is FTD 200: Design Skills Workshop<\/strong>, a required course for all fashion and textile design students as a part of the First-Year Experience<\/a>. Students spend a year immersed in design and the creative process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is their first chance in the program to learn industry standard stitches, learn the industry language related to construction methods, and they also gain a lot of confidence,\u201d explains Assistant Professor Kate Nartker<\/a>, who teaches the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creative Challenges<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the semester, students not only learn design and industry fundamentals, but also apply them through portfolio-building projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy favorite project was definitely the jacket project,\u201d fashion design<\/a> student Anna Lia Ritchie says. \u201cI really liked what I made and I loved the process of doing something that I wouldn\u2019t have been expected to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ritchie\u2019s jacket stood out, with eye-catching ruffles making up the sleeves of the piece. She used a unique process, drawing on inspiration from her childhood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember when I was young, I had this dress that I really liked, and it had a bunch of these ruffle-looking things, but they weren\u2019t gathered,\u201d Ritchie explains. \u201cI studied it and realized it was made from spirals, and when you stretch them out they create a ruffle without a gather.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Student
Anna Lia Ritchie used spirals of fabric to create the complex ruffles on her jacket’s sleeves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ritchie\u2019s out-of-the-box thinking is exactly what the project encourages students to do: draw inspiration from the world around you to create something innovative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jacket project, like most in the course, gave students a very basic flat pattern to work from, then asked them to modify it to create something unique to the individual designer. The students were also required to create their jacket out of sustainable, up-cycled materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy creativity was really challenged,\u201d student Sarah Do says. \u201cInstead of being able to choose any fabric I wanted, I had to choose one that I could find.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenging their creativity is the point of the projects. They push students to think in new and thoughtful ways \u2014 to think like designers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey really learn how to take their design sketches and their ideas and translate that into a technical process with a flat pattern, and then translate that flat pattern into a 3D garment,\u201d Nartker says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jacket Project<\/h4>\n\n\n\n