Cal Poly Pomona Team Takes Home Honorable Mention
Slideshow
This slideshow contains 1 slides that will change every 8 seconds. The first button is to play and pause the slideshow, followed by buttons to go to the previous slide, next slide, or choose individual slides.
A team of Cal Poly Pomona apparel merchandising and management students took home honorable mention in a national student design competition.
Michelle L. Cruz, Francesca G. Burks, Jessica B. DeGard, and Xiaoyi Liu participated in the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists’ Concept 2 Consumer Student Design Competition.
The goal of the competition was to create a fashion line with three to five pieces of work attire that were “timeless in terms of sustainability, quality, and style.” The students had to include at least three fashion colors that were not neutral and incorporate two or more surface designs.
The teams had to create and submit a two-page storyboard that included sketches or illustrations of the proposed fashion line; market research that defined the target customer and the fashion line; which AATCC test methods they would use to verify product claims; and how the line met the competition’s criteria for sustainability, quality and style.
The Cal Poly Pomona students were all part of a senior AMM research project class. When the coronavirus pandemic prevented them from finishing their research, they decided along with their instructor, Associate Professor Jiangning Che, to enter the AATCC competition.
They had only a month to prepare for a competition that was held entirely through online submissions.
“We did everything strictly over zoom meetings with Dr. Che present as well. Overall, we each had specializations in different things,” Burks said. “Michelle and Nicole handled the design, and Jessica handled the market research, and I did the rest of the research concerning sustainable materials and AATCC test methods.”
The team created a fashion line called “Urban Nest” that incorporated eco-friendly materials and fastenings that offer protection from airborne irritants or
disease, unique colorways and more relaxed silhouettes to increase comfort. It included a blazer, sweater, blouse, dress pants, and a coat with a removable hood.
The students chose testing methods that measured dimensional changes of fabric and apparel appearance after home laundering and dry cleaning.
The Cal Poly Pomona team was one of two teams awarded honorable mention. Those teams finished behind teams that won first and second place.
The Cal Poly Pomona students shared $100 from AATCC; a $75 Spoonflower gift certificate and Spoonflower DIY Book Bundle; a $50 Jacquard Inkjet Fabric Systems gift certificate to obtain prepared for dyeing (PFD) fabric Datacolor ColorReaderPRO; and a one-year Adobe Creative Cloud photography plan, including Adobe Photoshop
They also received a free, one-year AATCC Student Membership.