Students and alumni are encouraged to bear their most fashionable attire at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5 for the School of Fashion Design and Merchandising’s Fashion Walk.

The walk will take participants from Rockwell Hall down the new portion of the esplanade to the Fashion School Store located downtown. Partakers will strut down the esplanade to represent the exciting changes within the fashion school.

J.R. Campbell, the fashion school director said: “What we plan to do for Homecoming is celebrate all of the renovations that we’ve done in the building for this year.”

When Campbell began his career as the director, the school had little presence in Homecoming activities. Campbell is looking to change that.

One of the more prominent renovations is the move and expansion of the TechStyleLAB. The facility has been in the building for three years but has never been showcased to this degree.

Kevin Wolfgang, TechStyleLAB manager, said, “(The renovation of the lab) will accompany a lot more projects and a lot more people in the space.” Wolfgang would like to educate people about the lab’s functions and abilities.

Elements like a 3D body scanner, a laser cutter and a digital textile printer will be highlighted with demonstrations in Rockwell before the walk. Such technologies are a commodity that most students who do not study fashion at Kent State do not have access to.

Amy Howell, the TechStyleLAB coordinator, said: “Basically what it was before I started was a printer in a closet.”

Since the beginning of Howell’s academic and professional career at Kent State the TechStyleLAB has grown in terms of technology, space and efforts to educate students.

“I think it could be really fun to see how people interpret the idea of a fashion walk,” Campbell said. Campbell hopes to gain a large turnout and be a presence during the Homecoming events.

Vanni Pikus, a junior fashion design major, was excited to hear that the fashion school was presenting the Fashion Walk for Homecoming. “I think (the event) really opens up a good opportunity for outsiders to come in and see what we’re doing here,” Pikus said.

Marissa Boulton, a junior fashion design major said: “(If) we actually get enough people to do this, if enough alumni come back and (Campbell) makes the walk important, I think it’ll make the fashion school look respectable.”

Contact Samantha Tuly at [email protected].