STOUTONIA/SAM KILGARD
Sam Kilgard —
University of Wisconsin–Stout will be holding its annual Fashion Without Fabric Show April 16 in the Great Hall located in the MSC. For years the show has been a focal point of the spring semester, attracting large audiences to view the 200 plus outfits that will be on showcase.
Every year, Fashion Without Fabric has had a different theme for designers to follow. This year’s theme is 125 Years of Art, mirroring the 125th anniversary of UW–Stout. Though the event may be grand and glamorous, what happens behind the scenes is quite the opposite.
What many fail to realize while gazing at the assortment of incredible outfits is the amount of sweat and hard work that went into making them.
Linnea Lynn, a sophomore who studies interior design, is taking part in the show this year.
“My partner Rae and I put 40 plus hours into this outfit over the past week coming up with ideas and putting it together, and I know of others who have put even more hours into their work.”
Fashion Without Fabric is a daunting task for the designers of the outfits. They put countless hours into these outfits, making them as perfect and as presentable as possible. Freshman Rae Hovelson, an art education major, spoke on the trials and tribulations associated with the project.
“Fashion Without Fabric has been an incredibly demanding project- my partner and I have had to think outside of the box for every decision we’ve made. Since we can’t use fabric for our outfit we’ve run into a number of obstacles we’ve had to overcome,” said Hovelson.
The most demanding part of this project is the fact that no fabric can be used; therefore, students must come up with alternatives.
“It’s a very difficult project because we can’t even use large pieces of non-fabric material like plastic because it would be categorized as too close to fabric, which means we must use smaller and more individual pieces of non-fabric material to create our outfits,” said Hovelson.
Not only do students have to create these outfits, but they also must present them, which means walking down the runway on April 16 in front of hundreds of people.
When asked who will be presenting, Linnea stated, “I’ll be modeling our outfit, and I don’t know what to expect. I’m excited but also nervous. There will be hundreds of people watching, which means there will be no room for error.”
Fashion Without Fabric is much more than just a fashion show: it is a showcase of UW–Stout student talent and hard work. It is a showcase of effort and imagination rather than just a showcase of outfits. So when you take a seat at this year’s showcase, keep in mind the countless hours, endless concentration and tireless effort that went into every single one of the outfits.