Fashion design major now offered at IU

Source From: http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=82283

Students will now be able to pursue fashion design as a major at IU starting at the beginning of the 2011 school year.

The major will be offered by the Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design in the College of Arts and Sciences.Previously, students who were interested in fashion design were only able to obtain a two-year fashion design certificate.

The only way to earn an actual major would have been to use the college’s Individualized Major Program.

A high level of demand and students interested in the subject led to the department and the college developing the major, AMID chair and professor Kate Rowold said in a
press release.

“The IMP played a significant role in the creation of the program,” Rowold said. “By providing a mechanism for fashion design to develop into a full B.A. degree, IMP realized one of its essential missions, to act as a pedagogical and curricular incubator.”

From couture boutiques to discount stores to magazines and entire television programs being devoted to the subject, fashion design is a huge business, Rowold said. More than $82 billion are spent on clothing and accessories in the United States every year.

“The fashion design bachelor of arts major is intended to educate students in the art, process and product of fashion design in the 21st century,” she said. “The major will replace the certificate with a more expansive degree objective.”

The degree will combine aspects of the department’s Fashion Design and Culture Group, as well as studio and history courses from the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, Deb Christiansen, coordinator of the group, said in the release.

“The curriculum is founded on the design process, enhanced by the interaction of technique, function, technology and individual creative expression,” Christiansen said.

“Courses focus on traditional and experimental techniques as well as the history and theory of fashion as a significant
visual language.”

Students pursuing the new major will be encouraged to complete a minor or to earn a
certificate through the Liberal Arts and Management Program.

In addition, it is suggested these students choose classes in the anthropology, fine arts and folklore departments.

“The program uses and builds on the essential foundations of the arts and sciences, and encourages students to be creative designers, multidisciplinary thinkers and skilled communicators,” Rowold said.

For more information on the new fashion design major, contact the program’s advisor Sheila Maben at smabenindiana.edu.