The fashion industry is more than designing and creating runway-ready garments. TCU fashion merchandising majors learn firsthand that the industry involves business as well.

During parents’ weekend, the TCU Department of Fashion Merchandising sponsored an open house at the Fine Arts Building. Parents and students visited the newly renovated building, looked at projects the students have produced and worked on in the past years and got to talk to the professors of the major.

“My favorite part about the open house is being able to show my parents the work on the walls that I’ve been doing over the years,” said Emma Chassman, a fashion merchandising major.

TCU fashion merchandising majors not only learn how to sew and draw fashion garments but also learn the marketing and entrepreneurship side of the industry.

“I like to say that fashion merchandising isn’t so much about the designs, but more behind the scenes, and so it’s kind of equivalent to like the business side of fashion,” said Natalie Deptula, a senior fashion merchandising major.

This year, the open house differs from past years because technology has changed how the majors have designed and connected with the evolution of fashion trends. Current majors design clothing differently from past classes because the current students adapt to online retail and the surge of influencers on social media, Deptula said.

Additionally, this generation of designers is looking for a way to make sustainable clothing that can last longer and not further the fast fashion trend. Fast fashion is low-cost, trendy clothing that quickly produces concepts from the catwalk or celebrity culture to satisfy customer demand, according to Good On You.

Overall, the fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of global emissions, according to the UN.

“I think now there is such an emphasis in fashion on sustainability and how our planet is affected by creating garments,” said Ann Wood, a fashion merchandising major.

Wood added that fashion merchandising majors taking the textiles class learn why making garments sustainably is essential to making a future of fashion more planet-friendly.

Parents of majors saw their students’ work, got a glimpse of their projects and some even discovered how the instructors were molding their students into more promising creators.

Professors in the fashion merchandising department pass their passion on to their students, creating and elevating a new generation of fashion and business majors, said Angie Deptula, mother of Natalie.