By Rachel Sullivan, NewsNetNebraska

Fifty-two young, female models crowded into the home economics building on East Campus on a recent Wednesday evening.

They practiced their runway walk as Barbara Trout, associate professor of textile and apparel design, instructed them to flirt with the audience with high energy and long strides.

“Models bring the clothes to life,” Trout said.

The models were part of a biannual student runway show put on by textile, clothing and design students as part of their capstone exhibition. The show, called “Evolve,” was presented on April 23.

Students prepare for the show weeks in advance, but the week of the show is particularly grueling. It begins with the model walk on Wednesday, a run through on Thursday and the fashion show on Friday.

The model walk alone took three hours. Trout had to approve each model, garment and shoe combination based on proportion and coloration.

At the dress rehearsal, the students carefully monitored the hairstyles and makeup designed by them and carried out by the stylists from Iasan & Sebastian Salon. Again, everything had to be approved.

The students also had to fine-tune the  timing and choreography and commentary while the models had the opportunity to practice on the full runway.

On Friday night, it was show time. The models and designers showed up two and a half hours before the 7:30 p.m. show for hair and makeup. As models changed, hairstyles were perfected and strutting was practiced, the atmosphere behind the scenes was frantic and electric.

By 7:30, the Centennial Ballroom was standing room only.

And it all went off with a hitch.

“This show has been the most amazing and trying experience of my life,” said senior Cassie Clayton. “It is the culmination of my entire time at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and I couldn’t be happier.”

The show was separated into categories of different inspirations. Some of the influences were geometry, the environment, color, culture and history.

The work featured in Evolve has been in progress for months. It showcased about 130 student designs from 27 students, mostly seniors, with a few juniors.

The students worked on pieces right up to the start of the show. Some students worked on pieces that will be entered in competitions, in addition to the runway show.

Senior Madison Simmons worked on a group project with seniors Stephanie Luna and Sara Harper. They will enter their collaborative project in the Handweavers Guild of America Convergence Conference.

In their project, the Handweavers Guild provided students with hand-dyed yarns to incorporate into a design. Simmons, Luna and Harper wove the yarns with a loom to create their garment – a woven skirt and top with a quilted vest.

They used a tapestry weave, where the yarns are laid individually in the pattern, creating a multi-colored and textured look.

Senior Kathryn Alms and her partner, senior Michelle Higgins, designed and created a piece for the same conference. They were drawn to energetic, colorful prints, which they created in a woven skirt. To balance the energy of the colors, they wove a bodice out of black leather.

Alms said working in a team provides opportunities to learn from each other through constructive criticism and feedback.

“She [Higgins] has done things that I wouldn’t have thought of; it’s just not my intuitive design style,” Alms said.

Clayton worked on a quilted piece that was in the runway show and also in an upcoming quilted fashion exhibit at the International Quilt Study Center. The exhibit shows how quilting is incorporated into modern fashion design.

“It’s not just for little old ladies in their homes and rocking chairs,” Clayton said.

In the runway show, Clayton’s quilted bodice was worn with trousers and a knit top. For the exhibit, Clayton will incorporate the piece into a diaphanous gown.

“It will be kind of this crazy wedding dress from the future,” Clayton said. She said showing the piece in two designs would create variety in her portfolio.

The portfolio pieces in the show drew from work in draping, line development, craft fabric and experimental design.

Craft fabric and experimental design, courses the seniors took concurrently this semester, are supplemental to each other.

Senior Madison Simmons said the students designed patterns and colors for fabric in craft fabric and constructed garments out of those fabrics in experimental ways.

Although the students spend 12 hours a week in both classes, they said spending class time on one project was beneficial.

“It’s cool because you only work on one project so you get a lot of condensed time and power instead of trying to work on a million projects at once,” Simmons said.

In addition to a full class load and the projects they were still working on for the runway show, the students in the craft fabric and experimental design classes planned and controlled every aspect of the show.

Students designed and printed flyers while others distributed them at local high schools and stores and coffee shops downtown. They selected the models and designed hair and makeup. . Some students worked with the DJ to choose music.

“The show comes together by this class,” Trout said. “So not only do people have to create the work, they have to, in essence, produce the show with committees and taking leadership in certain areas.”

The title, decided by a group vote, was based on the students themselves; it was meant to imply the knowledge they have gained over their time at UNL and how much they have changed as designers.

“Evolve means we’re always changing,” said senior Kathryn Alms. “Even though this is where we’re at right now, we’re going to continue to change and learn more.”

Tags: fashion