Fashion students recycle old clothes into new designs

By: Martinez Crystal

Posted: 1/24/07

The craze of "Project Runway" has come to NT.
Fashion students had the opportunity to receive their own 15 minutes of fame by designing an outfit to be displayed in the University Union gallery.
The fashion and design society held the show from Jan. 18-22 for the fine art series. Selected students' garments were showcased for the public to see.
"For this project we started basic sketching and got to choose from a pile of old clothing," said Victoria Bleakley, Chicago senior and president of the fashion and design society. "We then used that to decide what we were going to do for the final garment."
All students had to use recycled clothing or accessories to produce their garments, which added to the creativity level required for the project.
The creations varied from a nice blouse with cropped pants to a jacket with knickknacks inside bubble wrap.
Bleakley's garment was comprised of three pieces. One piece was a purple strapless blouse with a gray, striped halter wrap-around top. Gray pants were the third piece of the outfit.
Houston senior Ana Mosqueda said designers were shown three different artists as inspiration for their garment.
"Frank Gehry was one of my inspirations because of his architecture," Mosqueda said. "He used a lot of lines."
Mosqueda said she has been interested in fashion since high school and eventually wants to own her own company one day. She received experience before this project at her internship with the company CIA and worked with Linda Segal Design in Houston.
Mosqueda said she started working on her project in October. She first drew 20 sketches, and the instructor selected which sketches she liked the most. Mosqueda then had two weeks to make her sketches a reality.
Mosqueda's garment had thin gray straps with black jagged lines. The garment was made of green floral lace with thin brown material across the middle.
At the end of the fall 2006 semester, garments were judged, and those with the best critiques were placed on display.
While Mosqueda said she's interested in the designing of clothes, Bleakley has been interested in the actual creation of the clothing.
"I personally have always been interested in the creation of the clothes," Bleakley said. "The fashion part is fun because it's always changing, and you never get bored. There's something for everyone."
Though it was hard work, Bleakley said the project was quite fun.
"It was fun especially because vintage clothing is getting popular," Bleakley said. "Also, getting to create something with old clothes, and now a couple of companies are doing that."
Dallas senior Amy Pace created a halter dress with purple on top, and shreds of pink, red, and purple in the middle. The bottom of the dress had blue ruffles with pink lines intertwined.
"I've always been interested in fashion, and I'm artistic too," Pace said. "So fashion design came naturally to me."
She said she enjoys making evening wear, and hopes one day to work for either an evening or wedding dress company.
"I really didn't know that I could create something new out of used garments," Mosqueda said. "It was a fun experience. If I could, I would do it all over again."