ITHACA, N.Y. - It's a business partnership free of contracts and obligations, but one that provides valuable insights into the respective worlds of youth culture and the fashion industry.
For the fourth consecutive year, Pendleton Woolen Mills has supplied fabrics to a team of Cornell University fashion design and management students to craft an experimental young men's clothing line and develop a marketing strategy for the garments. Each year the collection is featured in the Cornell Fashion Collective's Annual Fashion Show - one of the largest student-run fashion shows in the country - and reviewed by the professional design team at Pendleton's Portland, Ore. headquarters.
"It is always interesting to see how young fashion creatives interpret Pendleton for the contemporary market," said Morton Bishop, president of Pendleton, whose son, Mac Bishop, founded the Pendleton Scholarship Team before graduating from Cornell in 2011.
This year's line pairs Pendleton's classic Native American jacquards with complementary solids. The fabrics are rich, high-quality wools that span a wide variety of styles and textures, said Lexi Nastos, a senior fiber science and apparel design student with a concentration in management and marketing.
"This year's Cornell-Pendleton line is based off of the effortlessly cool college student. He can wake up ten minutes before class, throw on something comfortable to wear, and look great walking out the door," said Nastos.
Pendleton has also contributed $1,000 to the Cornell Fashion Collective's 28th Annual Fashion Show, which is Saturday, April 28, at Cornell's Barton Hall in Ithaca, N.Y.
Source: Cornell University
