Camerons invite MSU student designers to hit runway for charity

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Apparel and textile design students loaded their hand-made sustainable designs onto a bus bound for Nashville, Tenn. this weekend to participate in the “Southern Shores” fashion show and auction event.

In February, apparel and textile design senior Jillian Granz’s eco-friendly red carpet dress design was worn by Suzy Amis Cameron — wife of “Avatar” producer and director James Cameron — at a pre-Oscar party, which prompted the opportunity for the class to participate in the event.

The fashion show was sponsored by designer Jeff Garner, founder of the sustainable-design clothing firm Prophetik, based in Nashville. Garner and Amis Cameron greeted the crowd and talked about their passion for the movement behind sustainable clothing after MSU designers displayed their sustainable designs on the runway.

“Being an eco-friendly company, as you say, means doing things ethically — the narrow path that is overgrown and dark — it takes visionary leaders to blaze it, to introduce society to a better way of doing fashion in a sustainable way,” Garner said. “The MSU students were beautifully passionate about the event and the contest. I enjoyed their energy and their designs and they looked amazing on the runway.”

The 10-hour journey to the south for the eco-friendly fashion show began with an invitation by the Camerons to attend the evening outdoor fashion event.

“The Prophetik fashion show was interesting,” Granz said. “All the models had riding boots and it was sort of like a cavalry inspired southern Civil War theme.”

Students from the class “Special Topics: Innovative Approaches in Apparel Design” were the only nonprofessional designers present at the “Southern Shores” event.

“(Amis Cameron) was so impressed by our class’ designs she thought it would be a perfect fit and wanted to know if we could do like a pre-fashion show to Jeff Garner’s fashion show,” apparel textile and design senior Lauren Paulauskas said.

Prior to the fashion show, a silent auction was held where MSU designers were given the opportunity to discuss their eco-friendly dresses with the Camerons and potential bidders.

“It was cool to be part of the silent auction and hear people’s reactions to my design,” apparel and textile design senior Elizabeth Vanfleteren said. “We were able to stand next to our designs and explain to the people who were viewing them and get feedback.”

Vanfleteren said the Camerons made an effort to talk to each student designer personally and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

The designers still are waiting to hear the results of the silent auction and to see for how much their dresses were sold. All proceeds from the silent auction and fashion show will benefit MUSE Elementary, a nonprofit school in Topanga, Calif., founded by Amis Cameron and her sister.

Paulauskas emphasized the designs would have been completed for the class whether the group of MSU designers had been invited to the Nashville fashion show or not, but the pressure to perfect their designs increased after the trip was planned.

“Once we got the invitation though, and we knew important people beyond our professors would be seeing them — we worked on these almost up until this last weekend,” she said.

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