At 7 p.m. this past Friday, the doors of Talley’s State Ballroom opened, letting in a line of people that stretched across the entirety of the student union’s first floor. Inside, nearly a thousand chairs had been carefully set up, each facing a runway illuminated with blue and purple lights. Backstage, designers and models bustled about, making their final preparations before the main event, a mere half hour away.

Art2Wear 2018 was about to begin.

Art2Wear is a yearly fashion show held here at NC State, and is organized by a 14-member board comprising students and a faculty director, with this year marking the 17th time the show has taken place.

“There’s a lot of student involvement.” said Andy Hilts, a third-year studying graphic design and the student director of this year’s Art2wear event. “We have a bunch of students who are always working, always putting in effort and time … into something this large.”

Both designers and board members have worked for months in preparation for the show, from completing their pieces to preparing the lights and look of the runway.

“[I’ve been] building up the anticipation of waiting for it to actually happen, because it’s this sort of nebulous concept, like ‘Oh, this is going to happen someday,’ and now that we’re here, and it’s actually happened, it’s been really cool to see,” said Clara May, a second-year studying graphic design and the assistant student director of Art2Wear 2018.

The theme of this year’s show was focused on “caesura,” also known as the art of interruption. The participating designers were encouraged to take this theme in their own direction, with each creating a collection of unique, artful pieces.

“My favorite aspect of the show is the creative direction, and seeing everybody’s take on our theme for the year,” Hilts said. “As the director of the show, creative direction [was] basically my main job, making sure everything is organized. … Since it is student-run, we listen to the students, so they have their input on it, and have their hand into making the show what they want it to be.”

Louis Bailey, a fourth-year studying industrial design, was one of the designers who participated in Friday night’s show. Called Shezmu, his collection was based off of the early-2010’s vaporwave music movement.

“I wanted to do something critiquing consumer culture, and vaporwave is a musical movement that critiques that culture through surrealism, and I wanted to do that through fashion,” Bailey said.

Each of the designs presented during the show were hand-crafted, taking several months as well as multiple iterations in order for a finished piece to be developed.

“It involved a lot of prototyping, and making paper models,” Bailey said. “I have a whole wall, two walls in the studio that are just covered in cut-out paper shapes as I form them, to try and figure out what I want to do. It’s a lot of trial and error, and going at it until I found a solution.”

With the creation of their collections having been a hefty time commitment, Art2Wear represents the end of a long journey for the participating designers, with each hem and stitch representing the outcome of a hard-earned victory.

“It’s been amazing, honestly.” Bailey said. “I kept thinking I’d be glad when it was over, just because this has been something that’s really consumed my entire life, but now that it is ending, it’s kind of sad. It’s meant so much to me, and I’ve gotten so much out of it, and it’s really given me the opportunity to do something I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.”

Justin Leblanc, an assistant professor of art and design and the faculty director of Art2Wear, feels that the designers from this year’s Art2Wear have grown closer to each other throughout the course of the year.

“They’ve done all the work here, and it really shows their passion and dedication … and I think it’s become like a family,” LeBlanc said. “All of the people here, they’ve come to know each other, bonded with each other, and they believe in each other.”

With this year’s show now concluded, the designers can now rest easy knowing that their months of passionate work have finally paid off.