Since 1994, the First Friday Art Trail has been giving local artists, including Texas Tech students, a chance to showcase their art and fashion.
The Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts program features on average 120 artists and as many as 4,000 visitors in attendance at each event, according to First Friday Art Trail coordinator Tonja Hagy.
Hagy said they get a lot of their support from the Texas Tech community, and this Friday, apparel design and manufacturing class instructor Rachel Anderson will begin featuring her students’ wearable art in her exhibit titled- “Art and Fashion.”
Anderson said students had the opportunity to create either an art-wear piece, which is not everyday wear, or they could create a more practical ready-to-wear outfit. Students worked hard, she said, to create their outfits during their one-month timespan.
“It’s a great venue for the spectacular fashion designs that our students create,” said Anderson.
The “Art and Fashion” exhibit, she said, will feature nine current students and two alumni.
“Students get very excited about the course every year and love the opportunity to be able to display their work,” she said. “Not just for the First Friday Art Trail, but for the whole month of December.”
With a variety of couture and off-the-hanger garments, Anderson said some of the pieces will include a dress adorned with bird skulls to an Alexander McQueen inspired wedding dress.
Thong “Kevin” Nguyen, a 23-year-old apparel design and manufacturing major, said fashion was something he always wanted to be a part of.
“I have always been fascinated with fashion,” he said. “I want to create something to make women feel pretty.”
Nguyen, the man behind the wedding dress, said there were days when he worked on his project for about 10 hours straight.
When he began this program, he had never used a sewing machine, or a needle and thread. Now, in his senior year, he said the program has taught him a lot.
“A lot of people don’t know that Tech has a fashion program and it is going really well,” he said, smiling. “So this is a really good opportunity to put ourselves and the program out there.”
After Nguyen graduates, he said he plans on using what he has learned in the program to work for designers in New York. He said the knowledge he has learned in the apparel design and fashion program has left him prepared to work in the fashion industry.
Anderson said the progress the students make leaves her amazed because like Kevin, many of them begin the program with no sewing experience in the past.
“It’s a testament to how good our students are, and how good this program is,” she said.
The First Friday Art Trail, Hagy said, begins at 6 p.m. and is held on the first Friday of every month. She said visitors are bused around from venue to venue, free of charge.
The exhibit, Anderson said, will be on display throughout the month of December at the Charles Adams Studio Project Gallery 5 & J Studios located at 1106 5th street.
About Lucinda Holt
