Hemline will be swapping and styling the latest fall trends for its next club event. 
The LSU fashion club is hosting its first styling event for members at Swap Boutique on Perkins Road on Oct. 9. 
Kristin Ament, Hemline’s public relations officer, said Hemline will be going to Swap to give members the chance to learn about styling while incorporating the fall season’s trends.
Ament said Swap, a consignment shop, is the perfect location because of its collection of high-end designer merchandise mixed with trendy, medium price-point clothing. Swap employees will show club members what season’s fall trends and what to look and dress for. Members will use what they learn to style store mannequins with fall’s best looks.                                                                             
Kimberly Evans, Swap’s senior sales associate, said the members will first take an outfit quiz to learn more about their personal styles and style an outfit based on that, similar to StyleMint and JustFab’s style quizzes. She said they also will use other members’ styling results to make outfits for different preferences and body types. 
“If they are going to go into this industry … they are going to be able to … outfit [a person] based by sight,” Evans said. 
Evans said the event will be teaching Hemline members how to include transitional pieces from summer to fall, and it will end with mannequin judging. Evans said the top five mannequins will be showcased in Swap’s window for the next week. 
Ament said the styling event is useful because it applies to everyone. Whether the club members attending are design majors, merchandising majors or fashion enthusiasts, they’ll learn what’s current in the fashion
industry.
“Them learning to style and seeing what’s coming up really does apply to everyone and everyone can use it, so it’s something that the whole club can do together,” Ament said.  
Evans said it’s important to learn to “break out of the box” and create an outfit that fits different styles, bodies and trends.
She said the benefit of using Swap’s designer and casual brands is also a positive. 
“I think it’s really good to mix those. I think it’s better for styling purposes to have some higher-end staples and then, if you want to get something that’s more like in the moment and whimsical, it’s better not to spend a lot of money on that go with more casual brands,” said Brenna Phares, Swap’s assistant manager. 
Along with personal styling, putting together an outfit benefits members who are going into the design field. 
“For a designer, knowing what’s popular is all about what your business is because you want to sell something and make something that people are going to want,” Ament said.   
The same applies to merchandising. 
“As, for instance, a merchandiser, knowing how to display the product is all about what’s important,” Ament said. “And so them being able to realize and grasp, ‘Well, these things will look good together, this will make more money if we put it together,’ so someone can walk in and be like, ‘Oh I want that whole outfit instead of just a piece.’” 
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Emily Brauner

Swap, located at 3033 Perkins Rd., is hosting a styling event for Hemline on Thursday, October 9, 2014, open to Hemline members.