2-22-08

Media Release

Recycled Fashion Show Opens at OSU

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University’s annual Recycled Fashion Show will celebrate the centennial anniversary of OSU’s Department of Design and Human Environment with the theme “100 Years of Bright Ideas.”

This popular event, which features student-designed creations that range from the wacky to the fabulous, will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 28, in the Memorial Union Ballroom. It is free and open to the public.

The annual event is funded, planned and organized by a student club, the OSU Fashion Organization. Most of the students are studying apparel design or merchandising management in the Department of Design and Human Environment.

This year, the event pays tribute to 100 years of fashion and the centennial birthday of he Department of Design and Human Environment in the College of Health and Human Sciences. The college’s roots go back to 1908, when it was the Department of Domestic Art and the program focused on teaching young women skills in areas such as pattern making, sewing, household furnishings and décor. At that time, the department was one of the few accessible to women who wanted to obtain a bachelor’s degree.

Today the Department of Design and Human Environment offers integrated design and merchandising undergraduate and graduate programs as well as an expanded focus on research. Undergraduate enrollment has reached 650 students along with a graduate student enrollment of more than 30 masters and doctoral students.

The department’s signature research areas focus on functional design as related to apparel, interiors, and housing and consumer and user behavior related to the designed environment.

Last year, Benjamin Moua, apparel design alum, won the top prize at the Recycled Fashion Show with his Victorian-inspired outfit made out of paper grocery bags.