Kent State students to host fashion show on April 27

Each year, fashion design students at Kent State create their final collections. After critique by industry professionals, the best collections are chosen and shown in the annual spring fashion show produced by the fashion show management and production teams. This year, 25 student designers will have the opportunity to show their collections at the fashion show.

This year’s industry critics include fashion designer Sam Shipley of Shipley & Halmos; Michael Babb of Kohl’s; Erich Biehle, a former textile designer for multiple couture designers; Kay Unger, CEO of Kay Unger Design and The Kay Unger Family Foundation; Sacha Brown, educational initiatives manager at the Council of Fashion Designers of America; Kent State Fashion School alumnus Michael Cunningham, head designer of Joan Vass; and alumna Allison Sires, owner/designer of Thomas Sires. These critics offer advice to the designers along the way to improve on their concepts and designs for the final critique.

During the fashion show, an industry professional is recognized and inducted into the fashion school’s Hall of Fame. This year, the fashion school will induct American fashion designer Yeohlee Teng. Teng moved to New York from Malaysia to study fashion at the Parsons School of Design. She has worked primarily in New York City and established her own fashion house, YEOHLEE Inc., in 1981. Teng believes that “clothes have magic.”

She dresses the “urban nomad,” a term she coined for her fall 1997 collection, defining a lifestyle that requires clothing that works on a variety of practical and psychological levels. She is a master of design management and believes in the efficiency of year-round, seasonless clothes. Teng’s designs have earned a permanent place in the Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the late Richard Martin, then chief curator, called her “one of the most ingenious makers of clothing today.” Some designers previously inducted include Dana Buchman, Leonardo Ferragamo, Judith Lieber, Oscar de la Renta and others.

The Fashion School at Kent State was created in 1983, and in 28 years, it has grown to become one of the strongest fashion schools in the United States. Fashionista.com recently rated Kent State’s Fashion School as third in the country and 13th in the world. The Ohio Board of Regents has endorsed Kent State’s Fashion School as a Center of Excellence at Kent State and in the state of Ohio.

As a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), the school is also recognized as one of the top fashion schools in the United States. The school, under the direction of J.R. Campbell, aspires to be the best American fashion school by providing a comprehensive American university experience, a forward-looking and rigorous curriculum in fashion, an aggressive approach to the use of digital technologies, and access to a broad range of international and study-away experiences.

Kent State University