User 1st >>>Design Next - Fall 2023
In the fall 2023 semester, 24 Product Development students embarked on a journey to create inclusive, adaptive garments for disabled members of the community. This exhibition, titled “User 1st >>> Design Next”, exemplifies user-centric design and underscores inclusivity by catering to diverse abilities through cotton-rich design solutions. It culminated with a runway show at the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising, showcasing the students’ capstones and celebrating their efforts.
Wide Open Exhibit - Fall 2022
In the fall semester of 2022, the second annual student showcase took place, a collaborative event between the Product Development Capstone course, IIL, and the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising. The showcase, titled “Wide Open,” spotlighted innovative and inclusively designed apparel concepts.
Wide Open showcased, 26 senior Product Development students who are challenging how we design clothing to create comprehensive garments for all. These garments are inclusive of traditionally marginalized consumer groups.
Inclusive Innovations Exhibit - Fall 2021
Clothing is integral to participating in society, but what happens if you can’t wear mainstream apparel or find clothes that reflect your personal needs and identity? The Inclusive Innovations Senior Showcase featured work by 22 students that addressed this question by developing a line of five garments based on an underrepresented or marginalized target’s needs market.
This exhibition featured product designs that were inclusive of traditionally marginalized consumer groups, such as people with disabilities, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. From radical new design innovations to incremental alterations to existing products, these works asked the viewer to consider how clothing products can be designed to include, rather than exclude, the greatest variety of people possible.
Emerging product developers are in a unique position to design apparel that is inclusive of the greatest variety of people possible.