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USF students inspire sustainable fashion show

Photo from Ellen Mueller

This T-shirt, one of 30 designs in USF's sustainable fashion show, depicts a styrofoam-seeking eagle that steals styrofoam out of the hands of unsuspecting bystanders.

By CLOE CABRERA | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 13, 2009

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TAMPA - When Ellen Mueller asked University of South Florida students to share just how fanatic they are about sustainability, she was surprised by their answers.

"There was really a very broad response," said Mueller, a second-year master's in fine arts candidate at USF. "I expected the academic community to be a little more liberal, but some were conservative, some were liberal, some were unsure how they felt."

Mueller used the students' opinions to inspire a collection of recycled and/or sustainable fashions that will hit the runway Saturday night during "Sustainability, Fanaticism and Fashion at USF!"

Funded in part by a USF Graduate Student Challenge Grant, the show will feature 30 outfits designed by Mueller and Phil McCollam, a design instructor at USF's St. Petersburg campus.

The outfits are made from recycled fabrics and organic or fair trade cloth. They include T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, jackets, polo shirts, hats and totes. Nine USF students will model the collection.

Mueller launched her on-line survey for USF students in April. It ended last month with 200 people responding.

Students were asked to agree or disagree with 40 statements, such as "Human beings have already caused irreparable damage to the planet as a whole." (Sixty-one percent of respondents agreed with that.)

Mueller entered words from the statements most agreed with — including "irreparable," "damage" and "human being" from this example — into Google Image Search to find visual representations of those words. She and McCollam printed the designs on materials purchased from Zazzle.com.

They researched popular college clothing items before creating their own pieces, so their collection would reflect what students like.

It took the pair three weeks to create the collection.

Mueller hopes there's enough interest in the line to prompt the USF bookstore to pick up some of the pieces.

The entire sustainable clothing line will be for sale after the fashion show at EllenMueller.com/fashion. Prices range from $10 for a hat or tote to $46 for a jacket.