Art2Wear (A2W) is an unorthodox fashion show, presenting the best of the best in wearable art and technology from student designers at NC State. This year’s show, “Symbiosis,” will be hosted by the Gregg Museum on April 23 and 24.
Rather than practical clothes, designers are encouraged to create eccentric wearable art pieces that go outside the bounds of typical fashion. Beyond that, this year’s show is combining classic runway and museum-esque exhibitions to give audience members a unique experience.
Arynn Baginski is a fourth-year studying fashion and textile design and a co-director of A2W. She said that the goal of the show is to give student designers the opportunity to create beyond their typical means.
“With Art2Wear specifically, we’ve had kind of a concentrated effort to make it more character driven or world-building style than a traditional runway…” Baginski said. “There are other runway opportunities, so Art2Wear is really about people who want to create art and push the boundaries of wearable art.”
The content of the collection is up to each designer, and they often take on aspects of personal stories and messages. However, each is guided by a central theme — this year’s being “Symbiosis.”
“We’re really asking designers to explore relationships,” Baginski said. “The theme is always designed to be kind of loose, to allow for interpretation.”
Brooke Parrinello, a fourth-year studying fashion and textile management and co-director of A2W, said this year’s show is taking bits and pieces from previous years to optimize the audience experience. There will be three separate shows over the span of two days — also a departure from previous formats.
The co-directors wanted to incorporate aspects of dance and music into the show to further immerse the audience. Taking it further than a typical fashion show, Parrinello said they hope to tell a story that involves the audience as more than just passive observers.
“From the beginning, we were like, ‘Traditional runways are boring.’ So pretty early on we implemented choreography workshops,” Parrinello said. “We help our designers and their models come up with ideas to tell the story through choreography. And this year we’re having a full sound set created.”
Planning for Art2Wear begins in the summer, prepping to recruit and hit the ground running with the fall semester. In December, they chose their designers and designated roles in production, graphics, fundraising and leadership. From there, everything is about building a show to be ready in the spring.
Evie Dallmann is a fourth-year in arts studies and a co-head of production for this year’s show. Her work has involved designing assets and managing communications, as well as working to create a digital archival collection for audiences to explore alongside the exhibit.
Dallmann said the production focuses heavily on resourcefulness and maximizing creativity. If someone wants to work on something creative, they can find a place to do that at A2W, whether it is graphic development, set design or sustainable crafting.
Jordan Webster, a fourth-year in Media Arts, Design and Technology (MADTech), is a co-head producer and worked on the technical aspects of production, like photography in the visual production lab. She said most of the designers are in the MADTech program, but the production teams span all sorts of majors.
“They’re all very creative people, so it’s nice for them to be able to get that part of them out there through this,” Webster said.
A wide range of expertise is needed to pull off the show, and so diversity is integral. Webster said they are looking to include more students from engineering or textiles backgrounds in the future.
“We can really integrate any background and I’d love to equip the club with a multitude of disciplines,” Webster said.
Most of the senior leadership team are graduating this fall and look forward to seeing the culmination of their four years watching the club grow and change.
“Our team is such a well-oiled machine and everybody is passionate,” Baginski said. “We started writing our closing speeches and everything and I was getting emotional because I was like, ‘This is everything that we worked for for four years. This is our baby.’”
“Symbiosis” will have three shows at the Gregg Museum on April 23 from 7-9 p.m. and on April 24 from 4-6 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. To find more information about how to participate and attend, you can visit their Instagram @ncsuart2wear.
