Sabra Brockhouse reacts after learning her team won the Heritage Vault Collection competition — a collaboration between Mizzou Department of Textile and Apparel Management and apparel company Champion.
Contact: Sara Diedrich, diedrichs@missouri.edu
Photo by Sophia Scheller
A visit to Champion’s facilities near Kansas City last fall sparked the creativity of three University of Missouri seniors, inspiring them to design the winning collection for the Heritage Vault Collection competition — a collaboration between Mizzou’s Department of Textile and Apparel Management (TAM) and apparel company Champion.
A piece from the winning collection will debut at The Mizzou Store this spring, with the rest of the 13-piece collection set for release this fall.
“Getting to go on-site to Champion really put everything into perspective for us,” said Emma Volk, a member of the winning team. “It allowed us to see what we could do in terms of screen-printing or embroidery, which helped us stay within the guidelines for our project. It’s easy to think big but then seeing the facility and what they’re actually capable of doing helped reel us in and set a realistic standard that we could meet with this project.”
For the third consecutive year, students in the TAM 3480 Technical Design class have partnered with Champion to create a retro-inspired Mizzou apparel line — but this year marked the first time students had the unique opportunity to tour the renowned brand’s facilities.
“It was a great opportunity for our students to see firsthand what goes on at the facility and to ask questions,” Assistant Professor Kerri McBee-Black said. “It was an invaluable experience.”