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The challenges of universal design, inclusive design, and the support of sustainability are important factors in both apparel design and fashion retailing programs.

Basic principles and elements of design, including color theory, are introduced, reviewed, and applied throughout the four-year program. Two- and three-dimensional work, as well as color principles and their application, are studied and used in freshman studio projects. By the completion of the sophomore year, students have developed the ability to render garments and fabrics on croquets. Students refine and individualize their abilities for visual organization, color utilization, sketching/drawing, and design process in the upper-level design studio courses. Progressing from the modification of commercial patterns to development of unique patterns through the flat pattern and draping methods, students take projects from original concepts to finished products.

The fashion retailing program is designed to prepare students for a variety of fashion-related careers such as merchandising, marketing, buying, product development, retail management, or e-retailing. The curriculum focuses on critical thinking, technical competency, communication effectiveness, and creativity/innovation. Through coursework, internships, and study abroad experiences, students develop skills in product development, market analysis, fashion forecasting, retail and merchandising analytics, and visual merchandising. Students gain valuable work experience working full-time internships during their senior year with major clothing and accessory labels such as Donna Karen, Eileen Fisher, and Coach in cities ranging from New York to Dallas and Atlanta.

The Apparel and Textiles (AT) major offers two concentrations: Apparel Design and Fashion Retailing.

Students in both AT concentrations must take:

• 18 hours of common courses
• 48 hours of coursework for apparel design or 56 hours of coursework for fashion retailing.

Apparel and Textiles provides career preparation for students interested in merchandising, management, design and production careers in retailing and/or the textile and apparel industry. Apparel and Textiles is also appropriate for students who are interested in pursuing a wide variety of entrepreneurial opportunities in fashion retailing, textiles and/or apparel.

Career Opportunities:

Apparel design graduates possess the skill to both manually and digitally create an original line for a specific target market, articulate the design philosophy underlying the line, execute the pattern work, and prepare the technical flats and specification package for the line items. They are prepared, as a result, to meet the demands of an entry-level position as an assistant designer, assistant technical designer or positions in fashion publishing and apparel manufacturing. One of the strengths of the apparel design program cited by the recent NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art & Design) accreditation report was that students in the program are encouraged to find their own creative voice and point of view as a designer, allowing them to have a better sense of what they value in design.

Diverse career opportunities exist for fashion retailing graduates. Some graduates pursue traditional careers in corporate and regional buying and sales, merchandise management, human resource management, store management, product development, wholesale sales, and fashion coordination. Other graduates pursue non-traditional career opportunities in public relations, entrepreneurial enterprises, and as sales representatives outside the apparel industry.