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Sustainable Spirit: A Celebration of Campus Culture, History and Fashion

Sustainable Spirit: A Celebration of Campus Culture, History and Fashion

Saturday, May 09, 2020

In celebration of Indiana University’s Bicentennial, fashion design students in the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design researched, designed, and created sustainable Hoosier-themed spirit wear inspired by cream and crimson fashion and historic IU-themed apparel from the Sage Collection and the IU Libraries University Archives. This interaction between campus history, special collections, and contemporary resale clothing served as a catalyst for these re-fashioned sustainable designs. This exhibit, Sustainable Spirit: A Celebration of Campus Culture, History and Fashion, juxtaposes inspirational artifacts from campus collections with each student’s unique perspective of what it means to be a Hoosier.

Courses and Instructors
SOAD-F217 | Fashion Design II: Ideation (Instructor: Bo Choi)
SOAD-F303 | Fashion Studio II (Instructor: Lori Frye)

Student Designs

Through the lens of the Bicentennial’s emphasis on past, present, and future, the design prompt for this project was to create a unique design from resale clothing that exemplified all things cream and crimson, all things Hoosier spirit wear. This project encompassed the entire design process starting with research and ideation, then the sourcing of resale materials, and culminating with the realization of the best design through patternmaking and construction of a garment. The final looks were styled to include upcycled resale clothing.

McKenna Yankel: Design by McKenna Yankel

Matty Rabinowitz: Design by Matty Rabinowitz

Jamie Westphal: Design by Jamie Westphal

Felix Satterly: Design by Felix Satterly

Cassidy Benbow: Design by Cassidy Benbow

Process

Students learned about sustainable practices in the fashion industry, including current trends in sustainable design during the initial stages of the project. We visited a local resale store to source materials for re-fashioning and partnered with Sustain IU and the Hoosier2Hoosier Sale to recover unsold cream and crimson apparel. Students were encouraged to think sustainably to recognize useful materials and to repurpose and upcycle them in meaningful and intentional ways.

Resale store shopping trip for materials

In-class material selection of items from the 2019 Hoosier2Hoosier Sale

Creating patterns from existing garments

History

To chronicle Indiana University’s rich history of Hoosier traditions, students studied artifacts from IU Libraries University Archives including Little 500 and sporting memorabilia, student memoirs, scrapbooks, and images from the photograph collection. From the Sage Collection, students examined historic IU-themed apparel and the pairing of cream and crimson colors in contemporary ready-to-wear and designer fashions. These special collections served as a primary source of inspiration for student designs.