FASHION PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

GUEST SPEAKERS Successful professionals share current knowledge from their career areas such as buying, management, product development, store ownership, etc.

INTERNSHIPS On-the-job experience in sales, retailing, design, or manufacturing is a requirement in the Fashion program. Selected classes and faculty help guide students in preparing for the right internship.

FASHION SHOW PRODUCTION Students produce several fashion shows on and off campus annually, using original student designs and garments from the Historical Costume Collection.  To view a flyer for the upcoming fashion show click here. 

EXPERIENCED FACULTY Program faculty members have actual industry experience in buying, management, design, entrepreneurship and sales. They are active members of fashion and business.

INDIVIDUALIZED  

Students have tremendous opportunities for joint scholarship and industry-related activities with their professors. From designing a collection to field trips and collaborative research, students and instructors work together toward the objectives of personalized and lifelong learning.

Andrea Muckler

Account Manager

Yak Pak and Dickies Bag & Accessories

I am an account manager for mass, teen, and office retailers plus international distributors. My accounts vary from Wal-mart, Kmart, Kohl’s, and Staples to Urban Outfitters and Hot Topic. I work closely with Yak Pak’s design team to develop the right assortment for each retailer and their customer, as well as with the buyers, planners, inventory, etc within each retailer. After setting up appointments with retailers to show them the new collections, I make sure that all items are set up and shipped correctly based on each retailer’s routing guides. Once shipped, I follow selling and work with the retailer’s replenishment team to make sure that each store is at the proper stock level.

One thing that I learned and loved about MSU’s Fashion Program is that there is much more to do in fashion other than designing and buying. Having an internship was extremely beneficial because it forced me out into the real world and showed me what I wanted and could do after graduation.  

FASHION CAREER DAYS

Students participate in several Fashion Career Days around the country along with students from other universities

The Fashion program has grown from approximately 50 majors six years ago to 250 majors today. Our Fashion majors have received first and second place scholarship awards in fashion design and merchandising for the past three consecutive years by the Fashion Group International, Inc.

Computer Aided Design in product development is a significant area of growth in the fashion industry. Recently, the Fashion program was awarded a $1.7 million grant from Lectra for U4ia instructor training and computer lab software implementation and upgrades over the next 4 years. Mrs. Sandra Bailey is the grant coordinator. In both Fashion Design and Fashion Merchandising degree programs, visual communication, technology, and product development are at the core of the curriculum.

Original design apparel and accessories by Fashion majors are juried by a panel of industry executives for submission in the annual spring fashion show, one that will be produced by our students in a required course taught by Mrs. Jenifer Roberts, CTM 384: Fashion Promotion and Show Production, and that will be attended by over 1000 persons.

A unique resource housed in the downtown Park Central Office Building is the Historical Costume Collection. In the History of Costume course, students can view actual examples of period costume. The garments are also used as visuals in other courses, such as fashion illustration and clothing construction, and introductory survey courses as examples of popular culture shifts.

The Fashion Program has a required capstone course in entrepreneurship. We believe that entrepreneurship is the wave of the future, provides a greater opportunity toward economic equity, and is among the top educational experiences and tools we can offer our students--the leaders of the future. Many of our majors complete internships with entrepreneurs across the country. Our department head, Dr. Michele Granger, has co-authored a text on retail business planning in fashion entrepreneurship that is used globally in business administration and fashion departments. Entrepreneurship is at the core of what we do and in what we believe.

In our program, there is an emphasis on two types of experiential learning: internships, which are required and are monitored by faculty as upper-level courses; and international studies, which include study tours to Paris and China, offered alternating years. A combination of these, international internships, is offered in fashion merchandising and fashion design through study abroad partnerships in Great Britain and Italy.

The Fashion program offers graduate education through the College's Masters of Natural and Applied Sciences.