Fashion merchandising students join with alum to bring style to Nashville
Janel Shoun |
After two years of study at Lipscomb in the fashion merchandising program and an internship at DESIGNHOUSE, LLC, in Nashville, Campbell had plenty of experience working on clothing lines for the likes of Stephen Baldwin and Oprah Winfrey.
When fate brought him together with several friends to produce a Nashville fashion show for Canadian designer Paul Hardy in 2005, he decided the time was right to create a fashion-focused organization devoted to transforming Nashville into a fashionista haven.
About 15 fashion shows and a Rolodex full of contacts later, the Nashville Fashion Group (NFG) is going strong. The non-profit organization most recently produced a November show of designs by Hana Hattori (‘06), a Japanese native working to sell her dress styles from her Nashville home.
The primary service of NFG is to bring together people in all areas of the fashion industry to donate their services and talents to produce a show, usually held for a charity group, Campbell said. The charities get a low-cost fund-raising event and the fashion professionals get a chance to showcase their services and talents before an audience of potential customers.
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| Designs by Hana Hattori, shown at the NFG November show at the Global Cafe. Lipscomb students helped staff the show. Photos courtesy of Nashville Fashion Group. |
Campbell’s efforts have been noticed and highlighted in local media, such as alternative newspapers All The Rage and Nashville Scene in 2006.
NFG events have included the 2006 Never Been Kissed fashion show at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, featuring styles by Vera Wang, Manuel and Tiffany & Co; a show by designer Sarah Takesh, who creates fashionable Afghan-inspired products to help develop the Afghan economy; and a show featuring six Nashville designers such as MagPie Apparel and Jeff Garner.
“NFG is providing new opportunities and support for young designers like myself,” said Hattori. “They are giving people who live in Nashville more opportunities to be involved with fashion. You don't have to be a celebrity to go to fashion shows.”
Campbell sees his efforts as more than a mere economic venture. It’s a ministry for him. NFG works to enhance the three Cs, he says: Creativity, Community, and products designed with Compassion. The organization is founded on Biblical principles: it is one body with many parts working together to bring about an overwhelming vision, he said.
The set-up works particularly well for students, because currently Nashville has a lot of fashion students enrolled in various schools around town, but few internship opportunities in design, merchandising, marketing or fashion production, he said.
NFG events offer a great opportunity for students to learn skills on-the-job. In fact, Lipscomb’s Display and Promotion class served as the staff for the November show. The students worked on everything from fitting the models before the show, determining the best hairstyles and accessories to fit the theme and dressing the models backstage on the night of the show.
This was the second time Lipscomb students have staffed a NFG show: last year the students ran a fashion show featuring Lipscomb’s own archival collection of designs by Claire McCardell, an American designer of the 1930s and ‘40s known for her timeless sportswear.
“Our Display and Promotions students work on a fashion show every year, but the NFG has provided a particularly invaluable experience,” said Cindy Quinn (’84), Lipscomb adjunct professor in the fashion program. “It is a great learning experience for the students to see the show come together from the planning stages all the way to the night of the event.”
Campbell, who earns a living as a freelance model coach, fashion writer and business consultant, wants NFG to develop a strong relationship with all the local schools offering fashion programs, including Lipscomb, he said.
“The schools are educating the students who are the future of fashion in Nashville,” he said. “I want to let them know that when they graduate, they won’t have to move to New York. They can afford to live in Nashville and do what they love to do.”
“In recent years, Nashville has welcomed retailers that were previously attainable only by visiting a large fashion center like New York or Los Angeles,” said Kathy Bates, assistant professor in Lipscomb’s fashion program. “This growth in opportunities has been a real blessing for both current students seeking experience and recent graduates seeking employment.” Lipscomb grads have opened retail stores in Nashville such as The Bride Room and Anastasia, Bates said.
Banking on the rapid growth in Nashville, Campbell is already considering establishing NFG’s own clothing line, working on a monthly fashion e-magazine and producing Nashville Fashion Week 2009.
Lipscomb’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences offers majors in fashion merchandising and in textiles and apparel. Graduates work as managers at companies such as Macy’s and The Gap and to work as buyers and merchandisers in companies such as Vanity Fair Imagewear, Kirklands and Searle, an upscale boutique in New York City.