INSIDE AUBURN

UNIVERSITY’S
AMDA:
THE CREATION
OF RISING
DESIGNERS
WRITTEN BY: AVERY WELCH

F
ashion is self-expression; it is
an art that allows real-world
issues to be conveyed through
clothing and worn by many.
Sydnee Johnson, a junior in
Auburn University’s nationally
ranked apparel design program, embodied
this mantra when she took her experience
of being trapped in the crowd at the Travis
Scott “Astro World” tragedy and designed Figure 1 Clock of the 2023 Fashion Event

a piece that encapsulated raw human

emotion.
“I think you first have to realize [how] you
feel, and if you realize it, you can either let it
consume you, or you can do something about
it,” Johnson continued, “and so that's when I
sketched out my design.”
Johnson and a group of friends had flown
down to Houston to attend the event in
November of 2021. She struggled with the
memories long after but channeled those
heavy emotions into a two-piece skirt
ensemble with intention.
As Johnson’s story illustrates, Auburn
University’s program goes beyond just needle
and thread; it supports the fruitful art and
passion of rising designers.
The path to becoming a successful designer requires
nothing less than hard work and dedication. Within
Auburn’s program, you will find students from multiple
walks of life who possess individuality. The courses offered
work to educate students on every aspect of the industry,
with professors that lead in an admirable way. This diverse
and supportive environment fosters creativity and
dedication, making the program truly deserving of its high
national ranking.
In 2013, Fashion-Schools.org released its first report
ranking fashion schools in the United States. Auburn
ranked 20th out of the top 75 schools. Since then, Auburn
has remained among the top three in the South and among
the top 20 schools in the United States. Auburn University
ranks among private colleges such as The New York
Fashion Insitute of Technology and Savannah College of
Art and Design and stands out because it is a public school
that offers more than just skill-focused classes.
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 Apparel design program coordinator Karla Teel
has witnessed the program grow and evolve to
become a leading program in the field of fashion
design. She attended Auburn University in the
’90s and has been a professor in the program for
18 years. When Professor Teel attended Auburn,
the department was named Consumer Affairs.
Since then, it has evolved into Consumer and
Design Sciences and has expanded to make sure
that students are learning leading-edge stuff.
“We dive into how to make, spread, cut, and sew
the fabric, how to design it into something, how
to source manufacturing or fabrics, and how to do
forecasting, etc,” said Professor Teel.
Auburn’s program is a desirable top choice for
incoming fashion students because the university
also provides students with sports and other
professional majors.

“We start the students off with learning the fibers,
the yarns, the fabric, and then take them through
the whole process,” said Professor Teel. Inside
Spidle Hall, students learn about the industry in
traditional classrooms while also getting
experience working with fabrics in a studio
environment.
This aspect appealed to Junior Luke Johnson, a
student in the program. Originally from Denver,
Colorado, Luke had his mind set on fashion
design and chose Auburn for the program. He
decided to double major in Finance his
sophomore year and is also an active member of a
fraternity.

The look at a male perspective in a

predominantly female major was
refreshing, informative, and inspiring.
Johnson works to make the most out of
his college career while staying true to
who he is as a person, and who he is as an
artist.

“I think you have to know who you are

and what your vision is because people
don't know your vision; people don't see
anything that goes on in your head,”
Johnson said. He continued, “I think it's
important to know where you are, know
what you want, and just try to get closer
to it a little bit every single day.”

The Apparel Merchandising and Design

Association, AMDA, is an organization
affiliated with Auburn’s Department of
Consumer and Design Sciences within the
College of Human Sciences. There are two
different undergraduate majors offered in
the Department of Consumer and Design
Sciences, one being apparel
merchandising and the other being
apparel design and production
management. Students inside of these
majors can join AMDA, where they are
provided with opportunities for
professional development and networking
Figure 2 Sydnee Johnson in Capstone Harley Davidson-Dior Design- Photograph by Zeke Barrera among individuals in the industry.

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In 2011, AMDA hosted the first ever Fashion Event
showcasing students’ designs. Held in the Greystone
mansion with a budget of $300, it started out with
only students who attended. Since then, the event
has grown and moved into the Beard-Eaves Coliseum,
hosting more than 900 people. The event helps to
raise funds for the growth of the program, and this
year AMDA celebrated the 12th Annual Fashion
Event with the theme The XIIth Hour.
There are two separate courses associated with the
Fashion Event that students embark on to prepare for
the show. The fashion event planning class, CADS
3970, is a year-long course involved with the
technical side, where students must organize and
plan the event. The other course, CADS 5750, is a
capstone class focused on the steps the designers
must take to generate a design and bring it to life for
the runway.
The fashion event planning class holds roughly 20
selected students assigned to multiple different
committees such as modeling, styling, decorations,
social media, lookbook, and more. Senior Emma
Williams, an apparel merchandising major, was a
member of the modeling committee.
“We meet every Monday and Wednesday with the
entire class to help plan the show altogether.”
Williams continued, “We all came up with the theme,
the name, and the general idea of the show.”
Figure 3
The program welcomed the rest of Auburn’s student
body to contribute to the event as well. Designers
and models across campus, not a part of the apparel
majors, were able to submit garments to be
showcased in the show and audition to walk the
runway.
“We hosted the casting call for all the models to try
out, then we selected the models, fit them with
garments, and guided them throughout the show,”
said Williams.
In the capstone course, Junior Elena Aukamp, a
member of AMDA and a designer in the 2023
Fashion Event, explained that students are required
to come up with either a designer, an extension of a
brand, or a designer collaboration with their
assigned group.
“So for instance, my group is doing Harley Davidson
and Dior, and we pretty much have to go into all the
different elements of technical design and then
actually design pieces and make sure they're all a
part of the cohesive collection that also matches the
aesthetic of both the brands,” said Aukamp.
Junior Sophia Ventura, a member of Aukamp’s
capstone group, designed a bold yet elegant male
garment.
Figure 4 Model getting ready for the Fashion Event
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“My favorite [garment] that I designed was through
this Harley Davidson-Dior collab.” Ventura
continued, “I think it's because the two brands are so
different, it was something nobody expected, it’s so
opposing.”
Aukamp and Ventura’s capstone group, consisting of
three other designers, ended up winning Best
Capstone Collection in Show. There are multiple
sides to the design process that people may not be
aware of. Creativity and knowledge of technicality go
hand-in-hand.
“Capstone is probably the most technical design
class there is just because of all the stuff you have
to do with the spec packs, which is essentially
figuring out the cost of all the fabric and how
much fabric exactly you use and how much that
costs. You then have to calculate how much
thread is used and how much that thread would
cost. It's pretty much what is turned into
manufacturers to manufacture actual garments,”
said Aukamp.

Figure 5 The Harley Davidson-Dior Capstone Collection with models and designers - Photograph by Zeke Barrera

The fashion event planning and capstone class

demonstrate how Auburn’s program has come to
prepare its students with real-life work that can be
applied after they leave school and enter the
industry.

“Overall, we have many dedicated and very intelligent

professors that are highly invested in our students.
[The fashion event planning class] is a two-hour
course and I spend way more than two hours a week
on it. Because I want them to learn, I want them to
succeed, and I want the event to succeed because that
is the face of our program,” said Professor Teel.
Figure 6 Details of Harley Davidson-Dior Collection Design
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Ideas inside the capstone class turned tangible as
students finished up their garments for the event.
They celebrated the theme of finding harmony in
opposing ideas through the elements of their
designs. Phoenix, the garment created by Sydnee
Johnson, illustrates this idea and won Best Design
in Show in the 2023 Fashion Event due to its
powerful story and message.

“The whole thing was chaotic from the start,” she

said, “there were policemen on horses and people
with fence cutters cutting the fences down,
breaking in without tickets.”

Surrounded by stages, people, and barricades, there

was only one way out. In the five-minute interval
between when the clock came out and started
counting down, the crowd began to push forward.

“We thought they were making a mosh pit, and that

the pressure would release once everyone jumped
in the middle, but it never did,” said Johnson. The
next thing she described was horrifying and is
ultimately what gave life to her design.

“We were so squished together, that we started

rising and couldn’t move, and my feet weren't on
the ground.” Johnson continued, “There were
people underneath me who had fallen and I… I
blacked out a hundred percent.”

“When Travis finally came out, there was this

mountain. And this bird, the phoenix, came up on
the mountain, and then pillars of fire shot up and it
was so hot.” Johnson continued, “And all I
remember feeling and thinking was, I feel like I'm
in hell. And that's the last thing I remember, that
bird up on that mountain.”

The restraining fit of the corset represents the

suffocation she felt while in the crowd. The black
pigment represents the emotions of depression, but
the use of color on the back of the skirt brings light
and represents the tail of the phoenix, where red
and orange flow down the garment to the floor.
“The phoenix lives for 500 years is what the legend
says, and then it burns itself up, dies, and the new
one is born.” Johnson continued, “I would never
want to go through it again, but I'm grateful for the
experience because it taught me to not take my life
for granted.”
Figure 7 Phoenix by Sydnee Johnson- Photograph by Gregory Curry
The realistic nature of fashion shines through in the
story behind the design, and the story behind the
creation of the designer. The creative freedom it
takes to generate a design that holds such power is
supported and encouraged in Auburn’s program.
The professors lead students in a way that carves the
path for Auburn’s apparel design program to
continue to grow and be the home of designers
rising from the ashes.
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