Students get involved in growing fashion city with Fashion Week Columbus

Lydia Freudenberg
Tue, 11 Oct 2016 04:02:46 +0000
Arts & Life, Fashion, News, a&l, a+e, arts & life, arts and life, columbus fashion, fashion, fashion week, Fashion Week Columbus, osu fashion

Fashion Week Columbus is an opportunity for designers to show their work, and also for fashion students to learn the trade.

Fashion Week Columbus began on Sunday and will run through Saturday. Fashion shows, hair tutorials and presentations from figures in the fashion industry will take place throughout the Columbus downtown area. Fashion Week Columbus is a nonprofit organization that seeks to give a platform for local and emerging designers as well as provide scholarships to students in the fashion field, according to its website.

Erica Keysor, a 2016 OSU graduate in fashion and retail and assistant manager at Torrid, is among the volunteers.

“I’m excited to see new trends and ideas emerge,” Keysor said. “I’m also excited to feel the energy of the hustle and bustle backstage.”

Keysor said she is hoping to learn the operations of the fashion industry by working backstage during runway shows where she will be dressing models and keeping the show running efficiently.

Wendy Goldstein, a professor at OSU in the department of consumer science, said Fashion Week Columbus is an event for OSU students to further understand what is happening in the world of fashion.

“This is a great opportunity for students to get out there and network with people that are involved in the industry, whether they’re designers, models or people who own stores in Columbus,” Goldstein said.

Keysor said attending Fashion Week Columbus gives her the advantage of gaining contacts of people who work in fashion or fashion-related companies.

“I will have the opportunity to meet fashion writers, designers, producers and all others in the industry,” Keysor said. “It’s a huge opportunity, and I hope to expand my contact list after the event.”

With Express, Limited Brands and Abercrombie & Fitch in the Columbus area, the city has been named by Fashion Times the third largest fashion hub in the nation, employing the most designers next to New York and Los Angeles. Goldstein said volunteering at Fashion Week Columbus could lead to greater understanding of the job possibilities in fashion.

Some fashion career opportunities, Goldstein said, include sales, merchandising, advertising, branding, designing, modeling, writing and editing.

“Overall, this is an amazing opportunity for students,” she said. “Hopefully, Fashion Week Columbus will make students excited about the potential of their careers.”