Clothing is more than fabric stitched together. What people wear mirrors an era’s shifting values, social change and creative innovations. From the tailored silhouettes of the early 1900s to the relaxed athleisure wear of today, fashion tells the story of how people lived and expressed themselves.
Fashioning USU Through the Decades, a new exhibit near Special Collections in the USU Merrill-Cazier Library basement, showcases more than a century of Aggie style through historic clothing and modern student designs reimagined with contemporary materials.
Students in Melissa Clark’s Advanced Apparel Studies course installed the new exhibit, which highlights more than a century of Aggie fashion. The installation features 19 garments: 10 historic pieces and nine modern designs outfitted on dress forms assembled by Clark and her students. The exhibit runs through Jan. 15.
Historic pieces on display were donated by alumni and community members across Northern Utah. The pieces come from the Historic Clothing Collection housed in the Family and Consumer Sciences program. The modern pieces on display were made by student designers in the Advanced Apparel Studies class.
“The pieces from the 1910s and 1920s are from Edith Bowen,” Clark said, describing the excitement at finding the rare pieces this past year while organizing the Historic Clothing Collection. Bowen was a teacher, principal and elementary education leader, and namesake of USU’s teacher training laboratory school. “We noticed some tags sewn into them indicating that they had belonged to Edith.”
Student designer Lucy Herbert created a 2020s-inspired athleisure set.
“I tried to focus on the 2020s and kind of the essence of that athleisure and how everybody’s just in comfy clothes and so I wanted to make a sweat set,” she said.
She drew inspiration from “GorpCore and athleisure.”
Herbert said the knit fabrics were more challenging than expected: “Those stretchy fabrics are so much harder to sew. … Just the elasticity and the stretch of it was really difficult.”
Student designer Kirsten White also created a contemporary look informed by current trends.
“I designed for the present, and to research this decade I looked at trend websites like WGSN, Pinterest and websites to see what brands are currently carrying,” she said.
With family ties to USU, White also drew from personal history. Her grandparents and parents went to USU, and looking at pictures of them in college was helpful.
Emma Christensen designed the exhibit signage using materials from USU Special Collections.
“These were just real people wearing their clothes and now, decades later, it’s on display for us to look at,” she said.
Devin Greener, chair of the Library Exhibitions Committee, helped with the library’s side of the installation, planning lighting and accompanying hardware for signage.
“Any time we get to work with historical objects … and we’re able to see the student work in accompaniment with the historic pieces, that’s what I like to see,” Greener said.
Clark said the project showcases both USU’s clothing history and the creativity of current students.
“They are doing some fantastic work, and we wanted an opportunity to showcase it,” she said.
By pairing historic pieces with contemporary student designs, the exhibit underscores how fashion continues to evolve while honoring its roots, and invites visitors to see apparel not only as fabric but as a story woven across generations.
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