My Field Trip to Fashion Design College

Today I took a field trip to my former college campus where I and my designer/co-worker/friend Claudean met with a fashion design professor named Margaret about some illustrations for a book. This was quite possibly my best field trip ever. Margaret has worked in fashion in some capacity for 40 years-ish. One wall in her office was lined floor to ceiling with fashion books and magazines, a number of which contained her illustrations. She had framed portraits of vintage Barbie dolls. I could have spent hours there. What was she wearing, you ask? Black head to toe, with funky glasses, the lenses topped with red flourishes. She piled on half a dozen thick black necklaces of varying lengths--chains, beads and the most awesome huge vintage bakelite cameo she picked up at an Indiana antique store. (A students asked if it came from Target! She was referring to the Dominique Cohen jewelry collection they currently carry, an example of which is pictured. Material Girl just set up an eBay favorite search for antique black cameos because now I must have one--or five.)

After our meeting, she gave us a tour during which we got to see all the budding fashion designers in action, pinning fabric onto dress forms as they worked on their themed lines. (Material Girl can barely sew on a button.)

We had tromped a bit through campus to get to the design college building, and pretty much everyone we passed wore the same outfit: jeans, t-shirt and hoodie. Not so with the design students. They were adept at layering and wearing hats and scarves and pops of color with confidence--a crinoline under demin here, a shocking yellow tee peeking out there. (When I was their age, my favorite wear-to-school outfit was my shiny leopard print leggings, my oversize black Jack Daniels sweatshirt, and black clunky boots with chains. I also had some rather big hair.)