Baylor Fashion Design Students Dominate National Career Day Competition

April 11, 2011

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From more than 700 entries, five Baylor University fashion design students' designs placed at the national Dallas Career Day competition held at the Dallas Market Center's World Trade Center on Friday, April 1.

With more than 1,200 university educators and students in attendance each year, Career Day is the largest design career event of its kind in the country. This year, 83.3 percent of the garments sent in by the Baylor department of family and consumer sciences were showcased in the runway competitions, and 29 percent won an award and cash scholarship.

"The Career Day competition has grown significantly over the years and each category is highly competitive," said Dr. Judith Lusk, professor of apparel design, product development and merchandising at Baylor. "When students' garments are exhibited in the fashion show it is a win and an honor for the student. We have never had this high percentage of our garments walk in past Career Day shows."

Mia Berry, freshman apparel design and product development major from Gatesville, Texas, won first place for her dog fashion design in the Four Legged Fashion: Canine Meets Couture category.

Claire Major, freshman apparel design and product development major from Edmond, Okla., was awarded third place in the same competition.

"I was extremely excited and surprised that I received an award," Major said. "Baylor submitted so many strong entries in the four-legged competition and I had no expectations. However, I am very proud of my design and pleased that my hard work paid off."

Major said the construction of her design made it unique. She made it look like a double-breasted coat, including a chest piece with two rows of antique buttons.

The projects in the dog fashion contest were donated to raise money for the Four Legged Fashion "Pup-Tail" party, an auction to be held in May to help animal rescue organizations.

Lizvette Damman, senior apparel design and product development major from Houston, won first place for her fuchsia wool coat in the Texas Department of Agriculture Wool Competition. The coat features a handmade faux-fur collar constructed out of assorted yarns.

"I'm very happy and pretty accomplished because it was a really difficult jacket to do because of the collar," Damman said. "It took me three whole days to attach all the yarn."

Damman said she sewed the yarn together in rows with a zigzag stitch.

"If I were to have added anything else it would have been too much," Damman said. "It was simple. It calls a lot of attention because it's a fuchsia pink; it's a showstopper type of color. Having that color and having the collar be so big is definitely what drew a lot of attention."

Estefania Vazquez, senior apparel design and product development major from Houston, was awarded second place in the wool competition for her design, a wool hooded cape showcasing silk origami flower art in vivid colors.

"I was hoping that my garment would walk [the runway] which was enough of a reward for me," Vazquez said. "When I heard my name being called for the awards I was in disbelief. It was a perfect ending to my day and a definite reward to all the work that went into making the cape."

Vazquez said in class she was given a choice of making a cape or a coat and that making a cape required doing something to make it stand out. She chose to create the silk origami flowers.

"It was a challenge on its own to make origami flowers from fabric and then to attach each one of the 56 flowers by hand," Vazquez said. "The work speaks for itself and the cape makes a statement by making a simple design beautiful and definitely unique."

Karis Wade, junior apparel design and product development major from Tulsa, Okla., was awarded second place in the Outerwear/Casual category for her oatmeal-colored wool coat.

"I had no idea that it would do so well as to place in my category," Wade said. "I worked very hard and took my time to be as neat and creative as possible just because of how much I loved my fabric, and it felt absolutely wonderful to see that hard work pay off in a national competition like Career Day. I jumped right out of my chair in surprise and excitement once I heard my name."

Wade said the jacket's ruffled collar made it stand out.

"When you're in this coat, it feels like the softest warm blanket wrapped around you, and the feminine way that the skirt flares and flows makes it difficult to take off," Wade said. "My instructors made sure that I paid close attention to detail, and I think this was also very important to the judges at Career Day."

Other students whose garments were modeled on the runway include: Ivonne Gonzales (one entry in Career/Outerwear competition), Caitlin Reynolds (one entry in Career/Outerwear competition), Ashlan Juby (two entries in Career/Outerwear competition), Ashley Ude (one entry in Bridal competition, one entry in Career/Outwear competition), Kasidy Kersey (one entry in Career/Outwear competition) and Lauren Chapin (one entry in Career/Outwear competition).

For more information about the competition, visit https://www.dallascareerday.org.

For more information about the Baylor fashion design program, visit https://www.baylor.edu/fcs/index.php?id=62111.

by Katy McDowall, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805