Design by Lily Fleshour, new graduate with Business major, Fashion and Retail Studies minor; and Kylie Kane, Fashion and Retail Studies major, Business minor, from their collection Threads of Cognition.
Students in a variety of majors at Ohio State strolled down the runway this spring in a fashion show at the Ohio Union. The students coordinated every aspect of the event, from designing, sewing and modeling the garments to managing lighting and sound.
The annual event is organized by Ohio State’s Fashion Production Association (FPA). The student organization is open to all majors and is especially geared toward students in the college’s Fashion and Retail Studies program.
By participating in the show, students hone their design talents and event-planning skills, said Nancy Rudd, professor emerita of the program. Rudd serves as co-advisor to the association, along with primary advisor Alexandra Suer, a senior lecturer in the program.
“I think they get out of it an opportunity to be creative, especially if it’s not their major,” said Rudd, who co-founded the student fashion show in the 1980s. The event offers “an opportunity … to show that creativity in a public forum, and to really learn a lot about the organizing and production of a design show.”
The show is a multimedia extravaganza that encompasses elements of theater and television. FPA members handle every facet of audiovisual production, including video clips of the designers describing the inspiration for their work.
“A lot of our students who come from other majors are part of the production crew,” Rudd said. “The production crew takes care of marketing, day-of-show arrangements, all the set-up in the Ohio Union, the recording of the video clips as each designer or pair [of designers] is introduced. They take care of all of that, and it’s a tremendous effort.”
Alex Tremblay, who minored in Fashion and Retail Studies, served as co-director of design for the show for the past two years.
“We lead the designers throughout the design process. Our responsibility is making sure that designers are hitting all of their deadlines,” Tremblay said.
“Autumn semester, it’s a lot of concept work: We’re making mood boards. We’re coming up with concepts for our show, sketching. The real sewing work comes in the spring semester, and that’s kind of where the design directors will monitor and give advice about garment construction.”
Tremblay graduated from Ohio State in autumn 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Minoring in Fashion and Retail Studies sparked an interest in pursuing a career in the field.
Tremblay will continue studying design this fall at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. The school’s alumni include internationally renowned designers Calvin Klein and Michael Kors, as well as Nina Garcia, Elle Magazine editor-in-chief and Project Runway judge.
“I actually wouldn’t have considered a career in fashion or anything fashion related if I hadn’t joined this club,” Tremblay said of the student association. “It’s led to some amazing opportunities.”
“I designed for Columbus Fashion Week. … I used my sewing experience that I garnered through this club for that. These kinds of opportunities to design and interact with the fashion world helped me to understand what I wanted to do and really prepared me.”
Noor Abukaram, who graduated May 4 with a bachelor’s degree in Fashion and Retail Studies, presented her designs in the show during each of her four years at Ohio State.
“It really gives us an opportunity to tap into our creative side and truly bring our ideas to life,” she said. “That’s one thing I really love about the show.”
Abukaram, who will enter law school in the fall, said she also enjoyed working with her peers toward a common goal.
“Getting to know other people in your major and putting on this amazing show for over 500 people is awesome to see come to life,” she said. “I’m an athlete, so it really speaks to my soul, this teamwork and camaraderie.”
Also this spring, four Ohio State students each received a $10,000 grant from the Fashion Scholarship Fund, a nonprofit organization focused on workforce development in the fashion industry.
Grant recipients include Vivian Hall, who graduated May 4 with a bachelor’s degree in FRS. The other recipients are minoring in FRS: business marketing majors Megan Huffnagle and Ellie Michaelis and business operations management major Prateeksha Prabhakar.
