If you’ve ever been in the Family and Food Sciences Building, you may have noticed mannequins that decorate the display cases in the hallways.
Three students from a visual merchandising class were given an assignment to decorate a window display with a spring theme.
“With this project, we worked together, and we all put our ideas out there collectively, and that’s what made it fun,” said Peyton Battaglini, a junior fashion merchandising student and a stylist for Stitch Fix.
She said that although the fashion department is small, assignments like the display are a great way to show students some of the hands-on projects that they do.
“I liked how students who walked by would ask questions about what we were doing and about the program itself,” Battaglini said.
She said she was inspired by Pinterest for the spring theme and wanted to focus on the idea that spring is a time for rebirth and keeping things fresh.
The group went to Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts and Dollar Tree to buy supplies to decorate their display. They decorated hulahoops with greenery and suspended flowers from fish lines to give them the illusion of floating.
The dress and jumpsuit that are on the mannequins were purchased from Forever 21. The group even scored some shoes on clearance at Love Culture.
“I’m proud that we bought everything at an affordable price, and we were able to make it look expensive and modern,” said Shelby Urista, a junior fashion merchandising student and also a stylist for Stitch Fix.
Urista said the group didn’t want the window to have the stereotypical spring-themed look. Their goal was to incorporate classic colors instead of having an explosion of floral color.
“We wanted to present something that you would typically see during the spring, but keep it sophisticated and something that you would see in a real store like Anthropologie,” Urista said.
The decorators also referred to their visual merchandising textbook as a guide on how to style the window.
Yvonne Yii, a junior fashion merchandising student and foreign exchange student from Malaysia, said she enjoyed working with her group and being creative with the decorations and clothes in the display.
“I like how we were able to take what we learned from the textbook and apply it to real life,” Yii said. “We received great feedback from our teacher, and I am looking forward to our next display assignment.”
