Earlier this month, Nina Nickerson and five undergraduate students spent three days in North Carolina on the International Textile Alliance Educational Foundation’s annual industry tour. The tour was based in High Point, North Carolina (known as the furniture capital of the world, and home of the biannual ITA Showtime Market) but included trips to surrounding cities in both North and South Carolina and their were 22 total students on the tour from other textile programs across the country. The theme of the tour was “Fabric: from Concept to Consumer”, so each day was filled with activities that gave us a deeper look into the various stages of textile design and production.
"On the first day we visited Bennettsville Printing, a rotary printing facility, and STI, a family owned woven textile mill that produces Revolution Performance Fabrics, where we saw both their design space and mill where the yarn is spun and the fabric is woven, all in the same place. Our second day included a visit to Glen Raven / Sunbrella design headquarters and yarn spinning facilities. Seeing the yarn go from fiber to yarn was pretty incredible! We then got to head to the High Point Textile Tower and get a lesson from the design team at De Leo about being an inspired and innovative designer, and how to move from inspiration to finished fabric. That evening, we headed to the Future Talent Mixer & Portfolio Review, where we presented our work and got to gain insight from various industry professionals and ITA members about the industry. Many of these ITA members had visited Jefferson last fall for our ITA Design Symposium and naming ceremony, so it was great to have a chance to reconnect with them and pick their brains about what they hope to see from us, the “next generation” of textile professionals. The last day included an inspiring trip to Ambella Home Collection, where we got to see how furniture is designed, built, and upholstered and how upholstery textiles are selected and designed.
Overall, the tour was filled with information and inspiration, and I think I can speak for all six of us students in saying that it was an invaluable trip and we enjoyed learning from so many amazing people and representing the Jefferson Textile Design community in High Point!"- Nina Nickerson
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