Alison Rossi, Ashland University’s Instructor for Fashion Merchandising, has been teaching for three years and has some experience working in the fashion field.

“I went to Walsh for business, but wanted to do fashion so I went out to San Francisco and worked for a tech startup that was in fashion,” Rossi said. “It is no longer there, but basically people sell their higher-end stuff. We had to understand the market price and the quality from the photos. There was another startup that I worked with a woman who went to Harvard and it was really interesting to see that she knew all the business, but she did not know fashion as well.”

Students can major or minor in Fashion Merchandising. Within the department, there is a group called the Fashion in Action Organization.

FAO travels around Ohio to meet professionals and alumni. Another thing the organization does is give back.

“We’ve collected clothes in the winter for the past two years to give them to a certain organization that we feel needs them,” Rossi said. “We try to do fundraisers within the campus such as Paint and Sip, obviously no alcohol, and movie nights which we try to have in the fashion room. We bring snacks and chill and whoever wants to come can watch one of the documentaries you see on Netflix.”

Rossi stressed how important not only knowing fashion is but understanding economics, psychology, art and the fact that fashion comes in cycles and is nothing new.

“It is really understanding the ins and outs of fashion and the numbers of it, the understanding of trends, what is popular or not, it is what spot do we want to have our store in, when do we want to release this, what is going with the economy,” Rossi said. “You have to know how a person thinks or how a body shape plays into clothing…It is also history, knowing when it was popular helps a lot of people appreciate the history of when it was.”

Rossi took the design-focused department back on a merchandising track but left a hint of styling.

“We have a Ready to Wear Class,” Rossi said. “That’s a lot of styling and knowing what’s going on right now. Industry Fashion is also a course, and that is knowing what’s going on, what’s the color of the year and to pair certain things when you know a customer and what the genre is of them. So it is both the math of the markdown and what color is in season.”

Right now, the department is planning for their fashion show on April 12 and 13: Nature: Taking a scenic route.

“One person is sand, another one is a volcano, moss, floral prints or flowers, one of the girls at one point was rocks, another was snow, so they are all getting inspired and making garments that are wearable,” Rossi said. “It is not wearing actual leaves or something like that. It is really cool to see the theme coming alive within the show as well. The runway will probably be some form of grass or moss, along with a flower wall in the background and different kinds of elements like water is going to be seen on the table and forms of burnt things to represent fire.”

Email Rossi at [email protected] to join the fashion show.

“Anyone can join,” Rossi said. “If you want to be just a part of the show, if you want to make a garment but are not in Studio one or two, we’re all for it. If you want to just help out or be a model, you can. We are more than happy to have them, the more the merrier. One of our models is in the fashion department and the organization, so we get people from the art department and drama department to help us out with the props and music.”