2024 UT Fashion Show highlights budding designers

University Fashion Group President Faith McNabnay sets up the slidedeck for the organization's final general meeting of the semester and waits for members to enter the Flawn Academic Center on April 9, 2024. (Photo credit: Sonali Menon)

Dress forms in the corner of the Collections Capstone classroom located in the Gearing building at UT Austin features draped garments created by textiles and apparel senior Lily Cartagena. (Photo credit: Sonali Menon)

Textiles and apparel senior Seth Brogdon sets up his sewing machine on April 10, 2024 to create seams on a shirt he intends to serve as the focal point for the third look in his collection “Breaking of the Yoke.”  (Photo credit: Sonali Menon)

Brogdon models his newly crafted shirt ​​after stitching its seams in the collections capstone classroom on April 10, 2024. Brogdon said he wanted to check the size, silhouette and flow of his newly made garments and get opinions from his peers. (Photo credit: Sonali Menon)

Textiles and apparel senior Emily Wagner hand sews a collar onto a shirt she is making for her collection which was inspired by epic tales and stories she grew up with on April 10, 2024. (Photo credit: Sonali Menon)

During the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Seth Brogdon, an astronomy major at the University of Texas at Austin, was consumed by the existential question of the meaning of life. He found that, for him, it was art. In 2021, on an isolated ranch in Montgomery, Texas, Brogdon found a cow’s hip bone, but instead of seeing it as a corroded carcass, he glimpsed a beautiful opportunity to create a tangible piece of art and transformed it into an ornamental mask. The next semester, he switched his major to textiles and apparel.

“Fashion can impact a lot of people,” Brogdon, now a design route senior, said. “If you make something good in fashion, a ton of people might wear it, but if you make something good in the art world, people just go to art museums.”

Brogdon and 14 other young designers will make their runway debut on April 28 at the annual UT Fashion Show, which will be held at Fair Market on 1100 East Fifth St..

Produced by UT’s Department of Ecology alongside the University Co-Op, the UT Fashion Show emerged as the largest university fashion show in the world in 1996, according to a February 2021 press release by UT’s Division of Textiles and Apparel. However, since 2020, the University Fashion Group — the oldest student fashion organization in the university, open to all majors — took full responsibility for producing the event. The show serves as the signature highlight for textiles and apparel seniors enrolled in the collections capstone class, where they create four distinct complete outfits over the spring semester.

Assistant professor of instruction Gail Chovan teaches the senior collections capstone, an optional class for textiles and apparel students. In this course, students sketch, drape, sew and fit one full outfit every week. 

“It’s definitely a rite of passage if you want to be a designer,” Mikaya Guevera, vice president of production at University Fashion Group, said. “Everyone will tell you to do it, even though it’s really tough, but it’s worth it.”

Students designing their capstone collections must pay for all materials themselves and don’t receive any aid from the Division of Textiles and Apparel, Chovan said.

“I’ve probably spent thousands of dollars for everything because I’m super specific about fabrics,” Brogdon said.

Over the years, the collections show has garnered nearly $1 million in sponsorships. This year, the fashion group has worked with international brands like UNIQLO, Abercrombie & Fitch and Stuart Weissman alongside local Austin designers Miko and Consuela who contributed to guest speaker events and gave financial support to the fashion show, Samara Bartoluchi, vice president of public relations at UFG, said. 

“We start scouting our sponsors and donors in the fall semester, and since we are self-funded, it depends on how much money we get to how big of a production we can make,” Bartoluchi said.

The student organization raised $1,735 through the fundraising site HornRaiser and garnered extra funds from a collaboration with Austin boutique, Consuela, allowing it to create a bigger and more innovative show, Guevara said. This year’s catwalk will be constructed in an X shape to generate a more dynamic viewing experience and allow for greater visibility of each collection. 

“I feel like I have the craziest idea sometimes,” Guevera said. “I watch a lot of fashion shows for every New York and Milan Fashion Week, so I’m just kind of drawing inspiration from here and there saying, ‘What can we do to make this year’s a little bit more high fashion and elevated?’” 

Last year, the fashion group sold out its show with 350 tickets and 800 livestream viewers on the Longhorn Network. This year, it aims to host 500 guests. The livestream will be available on the fashion group’s Instagram page as the Longhorn Network plans to shut down this year, according to an August 2023 report by the Associated Press. 

“Fashion is such a pivotal part of everyone’s lives,” Guevara said. “People should come to the fashion show because it’s a great way to see the creative minds of people who are just like everyone else, but they’re working their brains to create something real.” 

In addition to allowing designers to meet with recruiters at the fashion show, University Fashion Group also offers other opportunities for its members to work in New York Fashion Week. During last year’s fashion week, Brogdon worked backstage at a runway show for the Japanese streetwear brand UNSERTEN, which opened the gateway to landing an internship at the brand. His experience working in Tokyo over the summer of 2023 inspired his capstone collection called Breaking of the Yoke, Brogdon said. 

“This is the first time that I get to show my work as an artist, so (my collection) is saying, ‘Hello,’ to the world,” Brogdon said. “I got the strong feeling that I was too young and not experienced enough to have a viewpoint and that there wasn’t anything I could say about who I am as a designer. So, that’s what this collection is all about — developing an identity.”

This article was originally submitted as an assignment for journalism portfolio taught by nuri vallbona at the university of texas at austin.