Fashioning Community: Discussions at the Intersection of Fashion and Community

Join INTERFORM and Crystal Bridges for a one-day-only event featuring fashion designers from the EMERGE Designer Residency program alongside museum curators and scholars as they discuss social and environmental issues related to fashion and its connections to arts and culture.

As part of Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week, presentations and panel discussions will take place in the Great Hall and on Walker Landing from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, November 12, 2022. This event is free and open to the public.

Free, no tickets required.

Panel 1: 1 – 1:45 PM | Great Hall

Changing Assumptions on Color’s Relationship to Gender with Dr. Lisa Corrigan and Aubrey Costello; moderated by Dr. Xuxa Rodriguez

Blue for boys, pink for girls… ever wonder when we started assigning specific colors of clothing based on gender? Or why? This discussion centers on the history of color-coding by sex and the economic, political, and cultural impacts that have prompted change in how color plays a role in gender expression.

Panel 2: 1:15 – 2 PM | Walker Landing

The Influence of Costume Design on Fashion with Joyce Modglin and Israel Rios; moderated by Stace Treat

From concept to reality, designs and trends have long been inspired by the world around us. Whether it’s in our everyday lives or in theater and movies, fashion plays a huge role in our society. Join us for an in-depth discussion on the influence of costume design in fashion and its impact on modern-day culture.

Panel 3: 2 – 2:45 PM | Great Hall

Religious Architecture as Fashion Inspiration with Stephanie Hubert and Lilli Martin; moderated by Dr. Xuxa Rodriguez

Fashion is often seen as ‘wearable art’ while architecture is viewed as ‘inhabitable art.’ Religious architecture and fashion inspire each other to embrace the beauty of the human form, reflections of the past, and the pursuit of something greater than oneself. This panel explores the parallels between these creative fields and how they serve as sources of inspiration.

Panel 4: 2:15 – 3 PM | Walker Landing

Diverse Cultures and Their Influence on American Fashion with Basana Chhetri, Melissa Laelan of ACOM, Abwe Abedi, Zawadi Lukoko, Faida Deborah, Merely Mack, and Terry Takamura; moderated by Hannah Lee of Canopy

Fashion is powerful in the sense that it often serves as a reflection of the unique cultures and identities of the people that both make and wear the clothing. It also represents a range of geographies, histories, and tastes. This presentation will highlight the uniqueness of diverse cultures and the influential role that community integration plays in promoting inclusivity.

Panel 5: 3 – 3:45 PM | Great Hall

Conventional Standards of Beauty in the Fashion and Cosmetics Industries with Sonia Spinx of Walmart Beauty, Laura Pratt of Crystal Bridges, and Natalie Cruz; moderated by Dr. Xuxa Rodriguez

Whether we realize it or not, we are constantly bombarded with imagery in marketing and in media that influences our own perceptions of what it means to be considered beautiful. In this presentation, we will explore how the pursuit of an arbitrary and ever-shifting ‘beauty standard’ has negatively impacted our minds and bodies. Additionally, we will hear from local industry professionals, learning how we can collectively work towards better celebrating all shapes, colors, and sizes.

Panel 6: 3:15 – 4 PM | Walker Landing

Fashion and Sustainability… Can the Two Truly Co-exist? with Abby Hollis, Dr. Lance Cheramie, and Darcy Harris; moderated by Stace Treat

Sustainable fashion: what is it and why should everyday consumers even care? Did you know that fashion is a leading cause of global pollution? This presentation will unpack the issues that derive from living in a society where profits outweigh sustainability and fashion trends are fast shifting, excessively wasteful, and largely driven by consumer demand.

Presented in partnership with INTERFORM.

Dr. Lisa Corrigan
Dr. Lisa M. Corrigan is a Professor of Communication and Director of the Gender Studies program at the University of Arkansas. Her first book, Prison Power: How Prison Influenced the Movement for Black Liberation (2016: University Press of Mississippi), won the 2017 Diamond Anniversary Book Award and the 2017 African American Communication and Culture Division Outstanding Book Award, both from the National Communication Association. Her book, Black Feelings: Race and Affect in the Long Sixties (2020: University Press of Mississippi) was the Honorable Mention for the Marie Hochmuth Nichols Book Prize in Public Address Scholarship. Her newest edited volume #MeToo: A Rhetorical Zeitgeist (Routledge, 2021) examines the #MeToo moment as a crucible for political conversations about consent and violence. Finally, she co-hosts the popular podcast Lean Back: Critical Feminist Conversations with Laura Weiderhaft, and she has worked as a political consultant for over 25 years.

Dr. Xuxa Rodriguez
Dr. Xuxa Rodríguez (she/her/ella) is Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. A critical race and intersectional feminist art historian, Rodríguez is responsible for modern and contemporary American art spanning the areas of Latinx and Latin American art, African diasporic art, feminist and queer art, time-based media, and transnational artists. She joined Crystal Bridges in the spring of 2020. Her research and scholarship have been supported by fellowships from Luce / the American Council of Learned Societies, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the US Department of Education’s Foreign Language and Area Studies Program, and the Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. An alumna of the Center for Curatorial Leadership / Mellon Foundation Seminar and the Smithsonian Latino Center’s Museum Studies Program, she has held fellowships, internships, and positions at Figure One Exhibition Lab Space, Frost Art Museum, Krannert Art Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Spurlock Museum.

Joyce Modglin
Joyce Modglin is currently the owner of One Jacks Cigar Lounge in Bentonville, Arkansas. Among her many talents and passions is garment designing and making. She attended the Los Angeles Trade Technical College. Pursuant to completing her education, she obtained a job in the manufacturing industry where she gained vast experience and knowledge that led her into the garment industry. She worked very long hours, sourcing fabrics and prints while becoming more confident in pattern making. She became a key vendor for Walmart stores while maintaining a costuming business on a freelance basis by making and stitching bridal dresses. She also designed many costumes for school plays, private costume events, Disneyland, Disney World, France, Japan, Hong Kong, and shipped thousands of princess gowns to Disney stores and catalogs. She has also worked as a body armor and bulletproof vest designer, later serving as Trend Director at Outdoor Cap as well as working as a designer craftsman for the Walton Arts Center. She now focuses her efforts on growing retail sales and maintaining her business in Bentonville.

Stace Treat
Stace Treat serves as Head of Interpretation in the Exhibitions department at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. In this role, Stace works closely with curators and educators to produce engaging experiences for museum visitors through multiple channels, including text, multimedia, digital, and other interactive tools. He primarily focuses on making the guest experience with the artworks engaging, interesting, and fun, with a mind to welcoming all and offering approachable and accessible experiences for all guests. One could say Stace is an in-gallery experience designer. He is in his seventh year at Crystal Bridges.Stace worked closely with curators and educators in several collection installation projects, including the return of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection in 2017, the re-imagining of our Early American Art Collection galleries that opened in the spring of 2018, and collection updates and highlights in our Contemporary galleries in 2019 and 2020 which included Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room – My Heart is Dancing Into the Universe. In 2005, Stace completed a critically acclaimed documentary film titled Sphere of Influence, which charted the two-year creation of a large public sculpture by artist Hank Kaminsky, located on the historic downtown square in Fayetteville, Arkansas. An avid lover of all the arts, particularly film, fine arts, and performance of all kinds, Stace also enjoys reading, cooking, photography, and travel.

Stephanie Hubert
Stephanie Hubert is an apparel merchandising and product development instructor in the School of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Arkansas. She is a recipient of the University of Arkansas Honors College Distinguished Faculty Award and the Bumpers College Outstanding Honors Faculty Mentor Award. She mentors student research in the areas of 3D printing, sustainability, and the application of other technology in the fashion industry. Students under her direction received awards at the International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference in St. Petersburg, FL. Under Hubert’s direction, students designed and produced a 3D printed crop top, from Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), on the University of Arkansas’s 3D printers. Their design walked in the Annual AMPD Enclothe fashion show and was featured in Discovery Magazine. In addition to helping students pursue interests in 3D design and innovative apparel, Ms. Hubert teaches pattern drafting and computer-aided (CAD) pattern drafting of apparel. One of her many contributions to the university, the Annual AMPD Enclothe fashion show, features collaboration with other departments across campus, including Electrical Engineering, Horticulture, Agricultural Education, Communication, and Technology. Garments designed in Hubert’s class included research on topics such as diversity in fashion, sustainability, and fashion as fiber art.

Basana Chhetri
Basana Chhetri is a Nepalese American designer from Arkansas. Born and raised in Nepal and educated and trained in Nepal, Japan, and England, Basana Chhetri is a costume designer and artist by profession. After completing her fashion design education in Kyoto, Japan, she returned back to her native country Nepal and started multiple businesses and boutiques along with the first Fashion School in Nepal, called the Contemporary Institute of Arts and Fashion. Over the span of 20+ years, she has contributed to the Government of Nepal’s fashion design curriculum, showcased her designs in various fashion shows, been a panel judge for Miss Nepal, managed a business that produced and marketed designer pashmina products in Japan, been an educator and advisor to fashion institutions in Nepal, and served as the founder and main designer for a boutique in London. She has also showcased her creative work in fine arts with paintings on stretched canvases, plain silk, and wearable fabrics while creating a fusion of traditional artwork and apparel design. Her solo exhibitions were held in Tokyo, New York, and the Walton Art gallery in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She has also presented her work in NWA Fashion week for two seasons. Previously, Basana has worked with Arkansas Arts and Fashion Forum in teaching sewing and stitching classes focused on Marshallese students to empower women in the local community. Basana is quintilingual with an extensive cross-cultural upbringing and exposure that shapes her creative expressions.

Hannah Lee
Hannah Lee has served as Canopy’s Director of Community Engagement for the past three years. She holds a master’s in international psychology and organizational leadership with a focus in conflict and trauma and holds certifications in fundraising and grant writing through the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy. Hannah has extensive experience working in community engagement and development for non-profit organizations across the globe, from Accra, Ghana to São Paulo, Brazil.

Sonia Spinx
Sonia started at Sam’s Club in 2008 as the program lead for the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology initiative. This resulted in the first-ever proof of concept for a point-of-sale checkout in less than 30 seconds. In 2010, Sonia transitioned to Merchandise Transformation Strategic Planning and Systems Development to build systems and processes for assortment, replenishment, and PO management. In 2011 she was promoted to Operations Innovations Supply Chain Strategy Manager focused on in-club stocking and receiving processes. Sonia then moved into the core merchandising organization in 2014 as the Planning and Allocation Director for Home and Tire Battery Center and the Planning and Allocation Director for Seasonal in 2017; Merchandise Strategy Senior Director for Home, Apparel, Seasonal, TBC, and Jewelry in 2018; and in 2019 moved to Walmart US as the Merchandise Operations Senior Director for Beauty. Leadership Development includes being a co-chair on the Women’s Resource Council and a co-lead for the Walmart Career Moms. Graduate of the Leadership Academy Program. Successfully completed GAP Partnership Negotiations Training—The Complete Skilled Negotiator, and now participates in the ASCENT Program and led a Mentoring Lean-In Circle. Sonia is an Arkansas native and loves being a wife to Darryl and a mother to Daniel, Cori, and Drew. She’s also a writer, social content contributor, a Big Sister with the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program of Northwest Arkansas, active in the local graduate chapter of her sorority, and a youth sports coach.

Laura Pratt
Laura has considerable expertise in the space of body positivity/body inclusivity/fat fashion and is deeply informed about the issues in the field. She has spoken at a few conferences on the subject (primarily on “acceptable” forms of presentation as a fat woman), and her work can be found in publications such as the Fat Studies Journal.

Abby Hollis
Abby Hollis is an apparel designer and sustainability consultant working with Arkansas-based startup brands on their journeys toward ethical production. She has studied textile systems in Northwest Arkansas, Coastal Georgia, Hong Kong, Northern India, and south-central Peru, building cultural literacy and an understanding of the global impact of art and design. Passionate about building systems that serve both their makers and their consumers, she advocates for educational storytelling to change not only the way objects are made but the way they are thought about and interacted with. Hollis graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in fibers and design for sustainability. Hollis has been featured in the CFDA Fashion Future Showcase, the Interface Uplifted by Design Exhibition, 2020 Sustainable Fashion Week, Dynamo VC’s Future of Supply Chain Podcast, LIVSN Pipeline, SCAD Medium, SCAD Manor, the Seeking Sustainability podcast, the EF Education First blog, and others. She currently volunteers as a member of the Fayetteville Arts Council and as the Project Manager of Strategic Partnerships for Fashion Revolution USA. Hollis recently co-founded Ozark Fibershed, an organization working to develop a thriving regional fiber system in the Ozarks.

Dr. Lance Cheramie
Dr. Lance Cheramie teaches in the University of Arkansas’s Apparel Merchandising and Product Development (AMPD) program. He also serves as the AMPD Internship Coordinator and advisor to the student-run Fashion and Apparel Board. Cheramie instructs students in retail buying and promotion, merchandising math, and sourcing and sustainability in the apparel supply chain. His research focuses on Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainability, and technology in the garment and textile sectors. Dr. Cheramie has a doctorate in public policy with a focus on sustainability, and he works with students to address environmental problems in the apparel and textile supply chain. Additionally, he is a Climate Reality Leader, Net Impact Global Campaign Leader, and a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Certified Sustainability Professional. He has presented at several International Textile and Apparel Association conferences in sustainability and has participated in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Circularity Program.

Lyna Ninkham
Lyna joined Canopy three-and-a-half years ago as the Employment Specialist. Today, she serves as Canopy’s Employment Services Manager. Lyna holds a BS in international business from the University of Arkansas. She has over seven years of experience in program and project management as well as economic development for underserved communities. Before joining Canopy, Lyna lived and worked in Thailand for four years in social entrepreneurship. She is the proud daughter of a refugee and immigrant family here in the US.