One University instructor’s first-place design in the Fashion Group International’s Alpha Awards was a multi-occasional dress made partially of alligator skin.
“My design is simple,” said Yvonne Marquette, a textile, apparel design and merchandising instructor. “I was trying to just draw attention to the materials more than a highly complex design, so the shapes are simple and clean. That was all part of the concept, to do something real urban-looking that was really clean and not complicated.”
Marquette is one of two University faculty members who recently won awards for their work in fashion design and instruction.
Fashion Group International also awarded Bonnie Belleau, TADM division head and professor, at the Alpha Awards competition in New Orleans.
“Alpha group of Fashion Group International includes retail fashion beauty textile and costume design fashion training and accessory design,” Marquette said.
Marquette won first place in the single-item, ready-to-wear category and second place in the fashion-training and education category.
Her second-place award was for an intricate slide show of students redesigning denim jackets for a class project.
Belleau topped Marquette in the category with a brochure made to promote the use of the American alligator in the fashion industry.
FGI also gave Belleau the third-place award for an alligator-skin coat she designed.
Three of the award-winning pieces are part of a research project, in which the department received a large grant to promote the use of alligator skin in the fashion industry.
“Several of the faculty members have been actively involved in the research for a number of years,” Marquette said. “In addition to doing designs myself, several of my students have developed designs that have also been entered into competitions. We have gotten a lot of publicity about the alligator research.”
The division also has worked on projects with emu, ostrich and other exotic skins.
“One of the things we like to do is to try to bring research into the classroom,” Belleau said. “We have done that and really integrated it closely with this project on exotic leather, because we have been able to bring some of those projects into the classroom and let the students work on them firsthand.”
Besides winning awards and participating in important research projects, the teachers are working hard improve the prominence of their division.
Design and merchandising are challenging industries to break into, and the major market is located nowhere near the South.
“Even though we know we have a good program, the people in New York don’t really know anything about LSU, unless they’ve hired one of our students before,” Marquette said. “Globally, they don’t really know the product we’re producing here.”
Both Marquette and Belleau strongly encourage students to not lose hope, though.
Alumni of the University’s human ecology department and TADM division now are working for many different major design companies, including Vera Wang, Ann Taylor, Calvin Klein, Banana Republic and Tommy Hilfiger.
“I don’t know that any of our students who have a degree in textiles and apparel from our program ever have a problem finding a job,” Belleau said.
Although the industry in the South is not booming, both teachers are extremely optimistic regarding the abilities of their students.
“We have talent,” Marquette said. “People say, how can you have a program when there’s no industry? It’s because talent is everywhere. Talent doesn’t just grow out of New York. Most of the people there are transplanted.”
Marquette and Belleau both think the department’s new awards and grants are increasing their popularity.