{"id":31668,"date":"2022-10-03T17:33:10","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T21:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/?p=31668"},"modified":"2022-10-03T17:35:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T21:35:02","slug":"slowing-down-and-specializing-a-semester-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/2022\/10\/slowing-down-and-specializing-a-semester-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Slowing Down and Specializing, A Semester in London"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

On a beautiful sunny morning in London, Caroline Diaz enjoys a fresh baked croissant in Hyde Park, taking in the scenery before she goes on to the busy day of a Wilson College of Textiles student studying abroad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz is majoring in fashion and textile design (FTD)<\/a> and spent last spring studying at the University of the Arts London. There, she took various courses including corsetry and creative visual communications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Diaz, time abroad meant more than just continuing her education in a new place. It was a chance to take the time to absorb a new culture and hone in on specific skills \u2014 to learn in a new way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGetting the time to learn all the techniques, all that slow learning, is one of my favorite parts about the experience that I had there,\u201d Diaz says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s talking specifically about her corsetry class, where she spent the entire semester learning both the history and the technique behind the influential piece of clothing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was concentrated on one type of garment that\u2019s very historically significant,\u201d Diaz explains. \u201cBeing able to work on that one specific product for the whole semester was refreshing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While her corsetry class challenged her to dive deeper into a particular garment, her creative visual communications class pushed her to explore the boundaries of her degree and expand on a topic she wasn\u2019t familiar with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was nice to add a little bit of the business and merchandising side to my repertoire and be able to integrate that into my degree,\u201d Diaz says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz brought all she learned abroad back with her to the Wilson College for her senior year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n