URBN Internship

Textile Design Junior Olivia Pagnotta shared with us details on her great internship with Urban Outfitters. Please see the interview and images below.  

*Please tell us about your summer internship.  Where did you work and what were your responsibilities?

I worked at URBN for shared services (Free People, Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters) as the knitting room intern.  As the knitting room intern, I shadowed the knitting room manager and his assistant.  I would sit in on meetings about new projects and the plans to execute them, and then I would help by picking out the color combinations and by knitting swatches or yardage.  

*How did you land this great internship?

I landed this internship thanks to a former PhilaU alumna.  She works with the sweater/knit teams at URBN.  When they were looking for help in the knitting room she contacted the university, who then suggested me as a possible fit for the job.  I went to the Navy Yard (where URBN is based) and interviewed with Alan, the knitting room manager.  I found out a few weeks later that I was accepted into the summer internship program.  

*Can you tell us a bit about the day to day work you did?
The typical day started with my manager and I going over the projects we needed to complete that day.  We would brainstorm about the colors, textures and stitches that should be used. Once it was all figured out, he would show me how to complete the desired stitch and then I would knit the sample.  After the sample was done, it would get washed, thrown in the dryer, ironed and then presented to the designers.  They would decide if they wanted anything tweaked, such as weight or texture, or they would ask for yardage of the sample.  After the yardage was knit, washed, dried and ironed, that project was completed and I'd move on to the next.  It was so much fun getting to work on a variety of  projects this summer and I loved the pace of the environment I was in.  Every day, each person had new and different swatches they were working on and I never found myself bored.

*How did being a textile design student prepare you for the internship?

Being a textile design student helped prepare me for the internship by teaching me how to use and blend yarns together to create beautiful color combinations, as well as teaching me the basics of knitting and designing on knitting machines through classes such as Knit Tech I and Knit Design Studio I.  

*Anything else you want to share?

It was a wonderful experience with incredible people and I'm so grateful that my decision to pursue textile design at Jefferson led me to this opportunity!

Textile Design Student Uses Microbial Dyes for Forward-Thinking Fashion

Textile Design M.S. student, Sivan Ilan ’19, showcased in London Design Festival   

Synthetic dyes rank as one of the major pollutants in the fashion industry. With the growing interest in sustainability, researchers continue to search for alternatives.

Dyeing fabric and yarn through microbially derived pigments is one possible option. This technique, being explored by M.S. in textile design student Sivan Ilan ’19, can reduce the demand for synthetic pigments and allow for more creative applications that can harness the power of organisms.

At the recent London Design Festival, she showcased a new line of apparel designed with Philadelphia-based biotech startup Biorealize’s Microbial Designer Kits. As the inaugural Biorealize Design Fellow, Ilan is working with Orkan Telhan, the company’s chief design officer, on the creative possibilities of microbially dyed yarn embroidered on previously owned denim.

“On their second time around, this series of garments is given a new life,” Ilan explained. “Drawing on botanical motifs from the natural world, the renewed garments move toward an environmentally responsible kind of making. Off-set seams and superimposed florals are designed to catch viewers’ attention by displaying imperfections and the handmade touch, contrasting the characteristics of a mass-production saturated market. The garments embrace a circular approach to fashion and a new way to think about the consumption of it.”

With a process called bioremediation, the synthetic dyes on existing yarn are selectively removed by natural microorganisms, she said. Remediated yarn offers an alternative aesthetic by working on an existing product, and they allow designers to combine environmental responsibility with their creativity for forward-thinking fashion.

“As a graduate student at Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University), my body of work is focused on sustainability in textiles and fashion,” Ilan said. “I have been exploring ideas like circularity, environmentally conscious practices and consumer culture as they relate to textile design, so it was a great match to my interests to support Biorealize’s development with microbially dyed yarn.”

After graduation, she plans to continue on the path of sustainability in textiles and fashion and implement her knowledge through practical practices within the industry. “I’d like to support more brands and designers in their efforts moving toward a better, more responsible way of designing and producing textiles,” Ilan said.

Read Story: http://wordpress.philau.edu/today/2018/10/11/textile-design-student-uses-microbial-dyes-for-forward-thinking-fashion/