Staci Moening woke up to a phone call from her friend. In seconds, they were screaming with excitement. Moening ran to the living room and woke all her friends. While struggling to wake up, they offered congratulations to their jumping and screaming friend as she shared the news:

“I’m going to Beijing!”

Seven fashion design students will show their senior collections in China Fashion Week this March. The all-expense paid opportunity is part of a partnership program with China Central Academy of Fine Arts.

“What the schools across China have done really well at, along with the partnership of their local government, is decided that they really want to become better known on the international level,” said J.R. Campbell, director of the fashion school. “As of yet, people aren’t too internationally aware of the fashion school here, but it’s getting better.”

For now, the tentative plans are for the seven finalists—Moening, Bethany Clark, Abby Drake, Sam Woodard, Zachary Hoh, Vanecia Kirkland and Caitlin Nugent—along with three faculty members—Campbell, Linda Ohrn-McDaniel and Sherry Schofield-Tomschin—to fly to Beijing during Spring Break.

After adjusting to the 13-hour time difference, their provisional runway event is March 29 at a location yet to be announced. Students from CAFA will show about 40 looks in the event alongside Campbell’s estimated 28 from Kent State students. While the students will show as individual designers by collection, they will be in a greater context as CAFA’s international partner.

“I am nervous, but it’s a new experience,” said Drake, senior fashion design major and Beijing finalist. “I’ve never been to China and probably never would have gone to China had I not been chosen for this.”

The new venture will hopefully include time to tour CAFA and sights like the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, Campbell said. The professors accompanying him are attempting to educate themselves as well.

“We’re hoping we can help the students be orderly, fashionable and professional,” Schofield-Tomschin said. “Maybe we’ll make a connection with a faculty member in China. We could do some sort of a joint project with and make a connection academically, but we’re also hoping we get to see what they do differently and incorporate it here.”

The trip will last approximately seven days, with students and faculty returning the week after Spring Break.

“People in Beijing are more adventurous in their style and what they wear, with more diversity in terms of silhouettes and fabrications,” Campbell said. “I’m excited for it because I know they’re not only going to get to see some really amazing work, but also see how their work is received on a totally new market.”

The formal invitation

In November, Campbell and professor Vincent Quevedo traveled to Seoul, South Korea, for the International Fashion Art Biennale. There, they won a joint award as International Artist of the Year and met Aluna-Yue Lu, dean of CAFA’s fashion department. Campbell said she was interested to know more about Kent, and she offered the partnership at their first meeting.

“She talked about how they have a program that’s sponsored in part by the Beijing Municipal Government to have their school partner with another international school,” Campbell said. “The cool thing about that was it is essentially all expenses paid for 10 people to go.”

While the partnership is a one-time opportunity, he said it will give Kent State faculty the opportunity to make connections for future exchange opportunities.

“We’re almost as excited as the students are about it,” Ohrn-McDaniel said. “We’re trying to be very professional about it like ‘Oh, yeah, we’re big hot-shots. We do this all the time,’ but it’s very exciting.”

Paring down

Kent State fashion students did not officially learn about the opportunity, though, until this semester. Campbell told all of the seniors in January. Instructor Paula Dancie and professors Ohrn-McDaniel, Schofield-Tomschin and Noel Palomo-Lovinski joined Campbell as the critiquing committee.

“We waited until they had completed two of their four garments before judging,” Ohrn-McDaniel said. “It was important for me to step away from the students and try to look at the garments that were there, just looking at the collections, the pieces they had turned in, the quality of constructions and the aesthetic of the design.”

The seniors also chose their top five favorite senior collections. With that input and their own decisions, the judges chose 13 semi-finalists from the original 49 students the same day.

“We were notified by e-mail that we were among the final 13,” said Clark, senior fashion design major and Beijing finalist. “We were supposed to interview the next day, but then we had two snow days. There was a little bit more suspense and stress then.”

Campbell and Schofield-Tomschin then sat down with the semi-finalists individually to discuss their collections and what the trip would mean to them. Seven finalists were selected the same day, and the students received their official e-mail congratulations the next morning.

“I hadn’t seen the e-mail when Abby called to tell me,” Moening said. “I really couldn’t believe it. I am nervous, but I’m really looking forward to traveling, and I’m very interested to see how the industry works globally. This is just so huge and unreal.”

Contact Yelena Tischenko (contributed reporter) at [email protected].

Contact Emily Inverso at [email protected].