{"id":30719,"date":"2022-09-13T15:24:55","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T19:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/?p=30719"},"modified":"2024-08-06T13:58:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T17:58:15","slug":"textile-design-seniors-debut-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/2022\/09\/textile-design-seniors-debut-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"From Lichen to the Loom: Textile Design Seniors Debut Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

Through upholstered furniture, fabric swatches, sleepwear, tapestries and life-sized art installations, graduating seniors put four years of textile design education on display at the FTD Emerging Designers Showcase<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every spring, seniors earning their B.S. in Fashion and Textile Design<\/a> at the Wilson College of Textiles spend an entire semester developing their collections. Each student in the textile design (TD) concentration<\/a> creates between 10 and 12 new designs that can be incorporated into larger pieces or stand alone as fabric samples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy the time they get to this course, it’s like teaching as many separate classes as there are students because each collection is completely different,\u201d Professor and TD Program Director Traci Lamar<\/a> says. \u201cThis is the one class where they are free to choose any technologies that they have learned throughout their four years. I try to give them as much flexibility as I can so they can pick their own concept and pursue that, leveraging  their own unique design voice and skill set.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Professor Traci Lamar with textile design students from this year’s showcase.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Meet all 2022 designers<\/span>\n<\/svg>\n<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A three-day-long showcase in NC State\u2019s Talley Student Union<\/a> gives designers an opportunity to share their concepts and collections with the public; each student works with an event planner to customize their booth to their collection. But before that, they put in nearly 150 hours in class time alone perfecting their work in studios and labs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI definitely think sampling and taking my time to think about the functionality and pieces has really helped me grow as a designer,\u201d Tia Rogers<\/a> says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspiration <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Creative direction for textile designers\u2019 collections ranges from artistic and expressive to marketable and consumer-driven. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Picnic Remix” | Brianne Haas <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Preparing for her job as a surface designer at Abercrombie & Fitch, Brianne Haas put her own spin on classic American textile patterns for \u201cPicnic Remix.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about what patterns I grew up seeing a lot of that were inspiring to me,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Textile
Brianne Haas looked to classic American patterns \u2013 like florals, gingham and plaid \u2013 for her collection “Picnic Remix.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Microbes Meet the Digital World” | Maggie Kimmett<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Maggie Kimmett<\/a> went in the opposite direction, creating an art installation. A hike at the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho inspired her to use lichen to represent the value of perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA bunch of volcanoes erupted and left black ash everywhere. But if you look up close at the ground, you see this very neon yellow and orange lichen growing.<\/a> So it\u2019s this perspective of, \u2018Wow, there’s this whole little literal ecosystem growing here and with the perfect conditions to make crazy structures, and I wish I could see what was happening in that little Earth,\u201d Kimmett says. \u201cThen, when you zoom out of that complex little world, there\u2019s our whole other world and the world we\u2019ve created through technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research<\/a> provided her with the opportunity to learn more about these organisms as she created \u201cMicrobes Meet the Digital World.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI researched all different kinds of lichen and saw what they looked like under a microscope,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I feel like that is what helped me start figuring out what I wanted to do with different textiles to really mimic that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n