Collegiate Times

Student designer Lyndsay Tolbert carefully inspected her glittery gold dress with a cached pocket below the bust to see how well it fit model Olivia Folmar during a fashion show rehearsal before spring break.

"Maybe if we put you in a push-up bra with it," Tolbert said softly and continued to tug a little at the fabric near Folmar's hips. "It's a little loose through the waist. And keep it kind of bunched up, and then when you walk, I want just the tips of your fingers," she carefully adjusted Folmar's hands, "just to show off the pocket."

Tolbert, who is double majoring in retail management and design, said she always sets out to create a garment that is colorful, bold, graphic and unique - and when it came to the wildcard category, where the piece had to be gold and embody the Hood rich theme of the show, she wanted to go all out.

"I get kind of a ghetto fabulous vibe from (the theme of the show) that they wanted something bold, and I immediately knew that the bold in me had come out," Tolbert said. "If it was going to be in that direction, I was going to take it as far as it could possibly go. Over the top, (I) really wanted to just bold out on it. I had originally wanted to do something with a hood, and unfortunately, the fabric that I chose wasn't going to work with the hood. It would have just been this drapey nightmare. I still got the pocket. I got the hoodie kind of feel with the kangaroo pocket. You know - something slouchy, not uniform, but then you have the crazy skirt attachment. Just over the top."

Folmar, who departed from our conversation to return to her model obligations, suddenly returned at that moment and said, "I actually really like this dress. Like, 20 years ago, I made a bathing suit out of the same fabric. It's really cool - I like it."

Her positive reaction to Tolbert's work might be a good sign of what's to come. There's a competitive edge to the fashion show this year as the winners of the three categories (best new, feature and wildcard designers) will share a spread in Bella Magazine and earn the invitation to work with one of this year's judges, up-and-coming Los Angeles designer Kid Dangerous, who made his mark with his "LA don't heart you" tees.

But, as student designers, they are responsible for much more than just creating pretty clothes.

First of all, students have to pay for most of their fabric on their own dime; many of them consider the fashion major to be one of the most expensive, especially during this difficult economic climate.

"It's a little difficult. It especially depends on what kind of fabric you get," Tolbert said, who also mentioned that she is lucky to have a steady job and has resorted to clipping out coupons to help fund her projects. "You'd think looking at that fabric (that she used to construct her wildcard dress) that it's like, cheap - no, it's like $15-a-yard fabric. I could have gone with something cheaper that could have looked more classic and more streamlined, but I knew what I wanted, and I just definitely went for it.

"It's hard. I'm financing my own education to begin with, so it's even tougher to know that you have this much extra to spend. ... It's really hard to go out and buy fabric when you have a project due on Monday, and you just have to make it work."

Senior fashion major Meghan Stenzel agrees, but she also credits the out-of-pocket nature of the program to a lack of funding.

"Things like engineering or biology and stuff - everything is given to them by funding. We don't have any funding," Stenzel said. "No one really gives anything to us. ... I mean, our funding goes to speakers and stuff of the like, but it's not even from us; it's like Cotton Incorporated that has given us funding."

Consequently, the discontinuation of the fabric department at the Wal-Mart in Christiansburg has made matters even more difficult, Stenzel said.

"As far as money goes, everybody here buys things on sale," Stenzel said. "We still have plenty of fabric from Wal-Mart, but stuff is still expensive and hard to come by."

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