Fashion department grows with new equipment, structure
Janel Shoun-Smith |
Fashion program debuts new department chair, sewing machines and majors
The recent establishment of the College of Entertainment & the Arts has opened new doors to expand the existing fashion merchandising program, a long-time Lipscomb program that despite its small size has produced many a fashion entrepreneur such as Elizabeth Roney, founder of the Liz Alig sustainable clothing brand.
The college has taken its first step toward enhancing the program with the purchase of eight new Bernina 330 sewing machines.
“While we had excellent quality machines, they were close to 30 years old,” said Kathy Bates, assistant professor of fashion, textiles and apparel. “We had maintained them well, but with student use on a daily basis, some of them were simply worn out or in need of replacement parts that were difficult to locate.”
The new, high quality Bernina sewing machines have all metal parts, which Bates says should help them last longer. The attachments for the machines are easy to use with built-in decorative stitches so there are no extra parts to attach or misplace, Bates added.
“One of our favorite features of the machines is the built-in buttonhole feature,” said Bates. “The students were excited to see how simple it is to use and how accurate the results were.”
The sewing machines are just one step in the future growth of the program.
Fashion merchandising, formerly a program in the family sciences department, is now part of the Department of Fashion and Design, currently offering three majors – fashion merchandising, fashion design (formerly textiles and apparel) and entertainment design. The department also offers two minors – fashion merchandising and interior design.
“In the future we hope to expand our entertainment design degree to have emphases in film and television, fashion design, events/industrials/amusement parks as well as performing arts management,” said David Hardy, chair of the Department of Fashion and Design. “We also hope to offer minors or certificate programs in fashion design and entertainment production.”
Over the past few years, there has been some cross-interest among fashion and theater students, but the department is now more fully exploring how the two disciplines can collaborate, Hardy said.
“An immediate change that we have implemented is adding a new requirement core of courses that teach all of our fashion and design students three important items: the fundamentals and principles of design, figure drawing and ways to communicate visually using digital media,” Hardy said.
“These study areas of focus are new to our fashion students and will also include students in the new animation program as well. We felt it was a great step to get all of these students into these core courses early so that relationships and understanding of one another's strengths would be a benefit during the students’ entire time of study,” he said.
“We also have plans to take our interior design minor and build it into a certified interior design degree,” said Hardy.
As part of the structural changes in the department, Lipscomb’s BFA in theatre design/technology has been changed to a BFA in entertainment design with an emphasis in theater, to accommodate future planned emphases such as film/television, industrials/events/amusement parks and performing arts management.
The mission of the College of Entertainment & the Arts is to be a Christ-centered, innovative, entrepreneurial arts community committed to rigorous artistic training, creative collaboration and professional growth.
For more information on the College of Entertainment & the Arts log on to www.lipscomb.edu/cea.