Kent State’s Fashion School Store in downtown Kent will be selling items from four fashion design students’  “Little Black Dress Project” to the public this coming Saturday and Sunday.

Each year, Kent State sophomores enrolled in the Fashion School participate in a “Little Black Dress Project” by designing uniquely different black dresses.

Maddie Jordan, a junior fashion design major, was one of the students selected to re-create her little black dress to be sold in the Fashion School Store.

“Within our flat pattern class, we always create a little black dress,” Jordan said. “It is a project that the sophomores are well-known for.”

Multimedia Project from Taylor Pierce on Vimeo.

Bakhita Mukundi, a sophomore fashion design major, volunteered to help recreate classmate Yidan Hu’s design while she studies in New York City this semester.

 “I helped out with fixing and sizing the patterns for the dress, cutting out different pattern pieces and sewing up the actual dresses,” Mukundi said.

Mukundi described the process that the Fashion School Store used when selecting which dresses they wanted to feature.

“All of the drawings from the … project were set out (and then) the Fashion School Store reviewed them and picked designs they felt were able to be recreated easily,” Mukundi said.

Bailey Wallace, a junior fashion design major, was another student selected to have her design sold to consumers in the Fashion School Store.

“We are each making multiple sizes in the dress to market to consumers in the Fashion School Store,” Wallace said. “For my design, I wanted something simple that could be worn to a variety of different places.”

Jordan said her professor and the fashion school worked together in using this project to create awareness for the curriculum being taught at the fashion school.

“My professor, (associate lecturer) Paula Dancie, really wanted to get more recognition for all of the work that goes into the project and create awareness for the curriculum that we are doing,” Jordan said. “The Fashion School Store was interested in doing that with us and I ended up being one of the students chosen to recreate two to three of my little black dresses for the store.”

Jordan said she put a lot of thought into her design and wanted to make something unique and different than what she normally creates.

“For this particular project, I wanted to design a coat dress because it is something that I thought could be super elegant,” Jordan said. “I always try and find something that is more out of the box than what I would normally design.”

Jordan said the Fashion School Store liked her original design, but requested some modifications before it could be sold to consumers.

“The dress was originally made out of a more satin-like black fabric and it was a solid. I had some details on it in gold and the collar was all gold,” Jordan said. “The Fashion School Store saw it and said ‘we love this but we want you to make it in lace.’”

The changes were not required, but Jordan said she felt it was something she was interested in doing in order to accommodate the Fashion School Store.

The Fashion School Store provides students with real life opportunities by featuring their designs in store for consumers to purchase.

“It is honestly so cool having my design be selected. It is a little bit surreal because you go into fashion school and the goal is to get something you created out there, whether it’s through a company or under your own name,” Jordan said. “It’s cool that as a sophomore, I am getting the opportunity to get a glimpse of what that feels like.”

She added that her experiences working with the store will prepare her for her future in fashion design.

“I would say the most beneficial part of working with the store is it gave me that first taste of what it felt like to get something produced and how much work goes into it,” Jordan said. “It gave me the ability to take constructive feedback and put it into my own work.”

Taylor Pierce is the fashion reporter for The Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].