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“There is so much work that goes into this,” agreed senior Albina Ikizli, adjusting the tan blazer she described as “elevated office wear” on the sewing mannequin next to her workspace. “Spending a couple hours a day is not going to be enough. Sometimes you have to be here 10, 11 hours.”

That dedication can be felt throughout the Fashion Lab these days—a renewed energy beneath the space’s bright lights runs through it like the stitching on a freshly crafted garment. The department is growing and earning new attention. Efforts are being made to attract more first-year and transfer students interested in fashion design and merchandising, draw additional faculty and guest speakers, and launch a new design class in accessories.

And the program is gaining regional attention, thanks to participation in local shows and the revival of Chicago Fashion Week, a 12-day extravaganza last fall.

“The department is on the move,” said McKinley Johnson, fashion lecturer. “It is a contemporary environment that really does help students find their own voice and their own vision. It’s exciting here.”

Enhancing a Promising Program

Offering degrees in fashion design and fashion merchandising, Dominican is one of only two four-year colleges with fashion education programs in the Chicago area and one of only five programs in total, said Melissa Fernandez Carr, chair of Dominican’s Fashion Department.

To further build up Dominican’s program and prepare students for professional work in fashion design, fashion merchandising, business endeavors, costuming and more, workspaces within Dominican’s Fashion Lab recently underwent renovations and new equipment was added.

“The upgrades to our fashion lab were driven by the need to provide our students with the tools and environment necessary to thrive in today’s competitive fashion industry,” Fernandez Carr said.

This equipment includes 12 new, modern, industrial-grade sewing machines; fabric dye vats in a dedicated space for coloring fabric; 3D design software; digital printing technology; industrial washing machines and dryers; and new tables and desks with storage space.

The space dedicated to the fashion department has also been reconfigured. The former computer room is now the dye lab, which also contains sewing machines, an area for cutting fabric, and a precision laser cutter for wood, leather, plastic and vinyl. Students have more space to work, machines to work with, and equipment that is easily accessible, Johnson said.

The students are ecstatic about it,” he said. “We are getting more students in the fashion department, so we need more space to accommodate how our department is growing. And these labs are so important for the department, for students to create what they imagine. If they don’t have the resources, they can’t make it happen.”

“President Glena Temple has been such an advocate for our program,” Fernandez Carr added. “When she came on board, she saw that this is a viable program and that we need to elevate it. I thank her so much for how she has been an advocate for us.”

Elevating the program also involves providing students with real-world experiences as they learn the ins and outs of the fashion industry and engage in initiatives that open doors to future careers.

Each spring, seniors design an original collection and produce an annual, professional fashion show at Dominican. Students also step outside the department to contribute to regional fashion shows, like the Piazzolla Fashion Stradivari Gala, where four seniors previewed their senior collections this spring. A partnership with the prestigious Driehaus Design Initiative has meant further exposure for Dominican designers, including participation in the annual Driehaus Fashion Awards, while the Fashion Mentorship Program introduces students to professionals in the design and merchandising industries.

“Students have the opportunity to work with professionals in and out of school,” Johnson said.

Forging Trend-Setting Careers

Today, alumnae/i have gone on to launch fashion lines, work for prominent corporations within the fashion industry and teach at the college level.

“What makes my job so fulfilling is seeing what our alumnae/i are doing,” Fernandez Carr said. “I’m especially happy seeing our students continue this passion they have, this love for fashion. And we do want them to come back home and show what they are doing.”

That’s just what happened in October 2024 when the Fashion Department and Office of Alumnae/i Relations presented the Alumni Fashion Show in the Social Hall during Chicago Fashion Week.

Dominican was one of only three institutions of higher learning represented during the 12-day expo spanning the greater Chicago area.

“It really got our name out there,” Fernandez Carr noted. “Since then, I’ve had people reaching out, asking to be involved with our department and be guest speakers for our students.”

Twelve alumnae/i from five states showcased their designs. Current students assisted in the production of the show, lining up models, dressing the models, marketing the event and making sure the garments from each designer arrived on time.

“It was a little overwhelming, but at the same time, it was a great experience because I actually got to feel what it’s like to put on a real fashion show with real models and contracts,” Ikizli said.

Custom-made special occasion gowns by local designer Maxine Scott ’79, MAT ’02 were among the styles highlighted in the show.

Sewing since she was 13, Scott’s appreciation of ball gowns and elegance only grew after her graduation from Rosary College when she joined the Ebony Fashion Fair, an annual event launched by the Johnson Publishing Company that traveled across the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. From 1980 to 1988, Scott dressed the models for stage appearances and the runway in the acclaimed and fast-paced show as it stopped in city after city across a nine-month span.

“Each one of us was assigned to three, four models,” Scott recalled. “We took care of their clothing and the fun part for me was working with dresses that cost $30,000, $50,000—Yves St. Laurent, Givenchy, Karl Lagerfeld. All those designers! I flipped over the dresses to see how they made them!”

And that, Scott says, influences the designs she sews today. In addition to the gowns she creates for proms, weddings and other formal functions,

Scott mentors a high school student who is interested in sewing and clothing design. She hopes this initiative can be expanded.

“I want to teach students so they can help me, and they can learn,” Scott said. “And this keeps them in a positive environment.”

For Erika Neumayer ’09, who had six pieces modeled in the Alumni Fashion Show, a study abroad experience through Dominican was the springboard to discovering a unique niche in the fashion industry.

Her company, Rare Dirndl, specializes in traditional and modern interpretations of the dirndl, a dress originating in southern Germany.

“The idea (for this fashion line) started to morph in 2007 when I took a study abroad trip to Ghana,” Neumayer said. “That trip really sparked my interested in traditional fabrics, cultural dress and what it means to culture— how something as simple as a type of fabric or the way you dress can represent your heritage.”

Having grown up celebrating her German culture and participating in traditional dance, Neumayer was inspired to further explore her ancestry in the German-speaking communities in the former Yugoslavia, Hungary and Romania. For her senior project, she drew from her research to create replica dirndl dresses.

That project grew into the professional fashion line and business that Neumayer has been running for the last 15 years.

“The fashion show really helped put a spark in me to push the boundaries of what I’ve been doing,” she added.

Rosa Roche ’12, another contributor to the fashion show, traveled from Los Angeles, where her brand R2K House is based. Currently working in textile design and home decor, Roche contributed several pieces from a clothing line she worked on in collaboration with global online fashion retailer Shein.

“I grew to love fashion because of Dominican,” she said. “I went to Dominican to major in criminology, but I always had a passion for designing and sketching. I decided to take a fashion class and instantly fell in love with the class.”

Iris Carney Cooper ’14 draws upon her fashion education in her work teaching a History of Fashion course at Western Michigan University and serving as curator of the fashion department’s historic garment collection. She also used Dominican University as inspiration for the two dresses she designed for the Alumni Fashion Show. One was dyed a striking Dominican blue with white flowers sewn in the design of rosary beads.

“The professors are very in tune with the industry,” Carney Cooper observed. “They really knew how to push us in the right ways to gain the skills that really matter in order to be competitive in the job force.”

With Chicago Fashion Week set to return later this year, Fernandez Carr hopes it will lead to a resurgence of the industry in the city—making a Dominican University education all the more desirable.

“Our program is really important, not just for the university, but for Chicago,” she noted. “We have had schools that have closed and we have students who want a four-year degree. It’s really important we have this here.”