The display case in the first floor Iowa Hall gallery holds visual displays created by students of Kirkwood’s apparel visual merchandising course, showcasing their talent and capturing different themes through the medium of fashion.
Apparel merchendising students work together to create stunning displays based on prompts interpreted by the students, but there is more to these displays than what is on the surface. Not only are they optically beautiful, but they communicate powerful messages.
Dr. Elisha Stanley, professor of apparel visual merchandising, explained that these displays are more than what they appear to be. “On the surface, it appears to be pretty clothes or an attractive vignette, but it is much more; it is branding, marketing, art, design, psychology and more.” Stanley further emphasized that students learn transferrable skills that will serve them in their future.
Asher Lord, majoring in apparel merchandising and design, explained the importance of fashion as a communicative medium. “Fashion to me has always been the most direct way to get a message across and to show who you are, what you like, and it’s also kind of empowering in a way; knowing that you’re dressing for yourself and you’re not dressing for other people, you’re doing what you want and expressing yourself,” Lord said.
Similarly, Sophie Ozolnis, majoring in liberal arts, finds that fashion is the best way to express oneself and communicate to others who you are as a person. “Just the way that the world works doesn’t really want us to be happy and optimistic,” Ozolins said. “I feel like dressing for happiness makes you happy. It makes other people happy.”
Students learn about teamwork during the course, learning how to collaborate with each other on projects. Gabriella Rippel, an apparel merchandising and design major, discusses the challenges, but also the importance of teamwork in the program. “It’s almost easier when it’s by yourself because you don’t have to coordinate with other people. It’s just you and you have your stuff, and you don’t have to do a bunch of communicating, but the reality is you’re working on a team. For almost anything in life, you’re going to be working with other people and on a team. It teaches you how to communicate and how to keep people organized — yourself organized.”
Through creating these exhibitions apparel merchandising and design students demonstrate the power of fashion and how it can be used to express oneself in ways that words often can’t.
“I hold the belief that the best way to live is 100%, so if you want something or you’re thinking about something, just dive into it, just do it.” Lord said.
Categories: Art & Life
