Student/Alumni Testimonials

Amanda Wagner
Radford University – Fashion Design

Favorite Class: FAS 221 - Fashion Show Production

One of my favorite courses that I enrolled in during the summer was a Fashion Show Production course. Our class produced the fashion show, which was used to display other AIU fashion design students' works throughout the semester. This course differed from the one offered at my university in that it was more hands on and in depth (providing that it was also worth 3 credits, versus the one credit at my home university). We had various assignments and due dates throughout the fashion show production course. Our first individual project was to elaborate on a designer chosen by the teacher and present it in a document complete with information regarding how the designer creates their fashion shows. A brief history and pictures accompanied it.

My designer chosen was Donatella Versace and her Contemporary Collection of 2003. Versace aided in the overall approach towards the class because this designer uses bright vivid colors in her productions with a simple stage setting, which was conducive to our final production. I compared her productions in this piece to other designers such as Gucci, Jean Galliano, and Dolce Gabbana.

The class was broken up into various groups of students who would work on a certain aspect of the show to produce it as a success. My team composed of two other girls in my class and I headed up the set design for the stage, theatre, and entrance. Our group was more involved than any other in the class. There were other teams for the sound-music, public relations- putting out flyers and posters, makeup and hair stylists, and the producer.

The experience of putting the show together was enough in itself. We had Lancôme sponsor our show and it was called "Juice," in which I came up with the name and the class agreed. Lancôme's Juicy Tubes were a source of inspiration for the designs and the show, and their associates provided the cosmetics for the models.

Everything was bright and colorful. My group ventured out into the city to find samples of what we thought would work for thestage. Everyone kept a journal of ideas for concepts and themes and our thoughts generated throughout our meetings. Our journals consisted of a collation of findings throughout the city whether it was magazine articles, pictures, fabric scraps, colors, etc. We must have come up with five actual set designs and decided on a neon fishnet look of the 1980's- as this was all the rage in London this summer. (It was like a big flashback costume party every time we'd go out). Anyhow, the design fanned out of both sides of the stage and we provided a Sangria alcoholic drink stand at the entrance.

In order to put the set design up, we created our final design together and scanned it onto the computer. Next, we blew up the design to a large scale in Photoshop and printed out on large paper, which was then stapled to the stage walls. Everything turned out wonderfully in due time.

I thought that I would only help produce the show, but towards the end, the student designer's need more models and I was asked to model a few garments in the show. It was extra work, but was really fun to dress up and strut down the runway at the end. Everything had been quite hectic up until this point, getting the run around and working under a fixed time constraint.

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