Amy Bittner
FIT, New York

Kaitlyn Doherty
Philadelphia University

Kaitlyn Doherty is a fashion design student from Horsham, Pennsylvania, entering into her senior year at Philadelphia University. She chose to attend Philadelphia University because of the Fashion Design Program’s excellent reputation in the industry. Kaitlyn balances her time between schoolwork and extra-curricular activities, and she is an active member of the Phi Psi Textile Fraternity on campus. She had the opportunity to study fashion design in Rome, Italy, during the fall semester of her junior year.
Last spring, Kaitlyn’s children’s wear design was selected for Philadelphia University’s Annual Fashion Show at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the largest event of its kind in the region. This was a wonderful opportunity for Kaitlyn to showcase her design and sewing skills. Last summer, she interned with Macy’s Merchandising Group in the children’s technical design department in New York City. She worked with the lead technical designer and was able to incorporate the technical skills she learned in the classroom at Philadelphia University throughout the internship. This experience provided her with great insight into how a large corporation operates and helped her sharpen her time-management and technical design skills. Kaitlyn is excited to participate in the Summer Project OR competition.

Shannon Smith

University of Minnesota

Shannon Smith was born and raised on the north shore of one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes. When she wasn’t in the water, she was on it.  Though hockey will always be her favorite, she is an avid fan of all sports from baseball to golf to fishing to snowboarding.  Busy and active and with no time to waste, she incorporates this life philosophy into all she does. In the past year she has backpacked across Europe, studied corsetry in London and interned in the Intimates and Yoga division at Juicy Couture in NYC, where one of her panty designs was chosen for production. An apparel design major at the University of Minnesota, Shannon designs for women who are on the move.  She combines classic shapes and silhouettes with original surface design and details and adds just a bit of whimsy.   Her goal is to create clothes that look amazing, feel great, move well and stand up to an active life.  Shannon knows that good design makes looking great easy. Because a busy woman always wants to look beautiful; she just doesn’t have time to think about it.

Christina Hill
University of Alabama

My home is Atlanta, Georgia; but I am currently attending the University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, majoring in Apparel and Textiles with a concentration of Apparel Design in the College of Human Environmental Sciences.   I find apparel design to be an excellent outlet to express one’s imagination and allow the designer to explore her visions. I will have the privilege to be an intern at the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France this summer where I will be working the festival for three weeks. I am to be one of the first apparel design majors ever accepted in to this elite program.
I am also a passionate scuba diver and hope to become an instructional master diver for Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) one day.   The ocean is a playground full of activity and visual inspiration - an excellent muse for those that share the passion of exploring under the sea.  Lastly, I currently play lacrosse for the University of Alabama. I understand the importance of active wear being fun, flirty, and yet comfortable and functional. I enjoy athletic activities to maximum of personal and team energy and I believe that the ensemble only boosts an individual’s and team’s confidence.

Virginia Gibbons
Washington State University

A junior pursuing an apparel design degree at Washington State University, Virginia Gibbons approaches Project OR from a variety of viewpoints.   Attending grade school in foreign countries and crisscrossing the United States as a teenager gave Virginia a broad perspective on people and the clothing they wear in all manner of roles they perform. That much of those experience included loving the outdoors camping, rock climbing, hiking, riding bikes, and kayaking gave Virginia huge respect for the role of function in design. Her love for the outdoors led her to summer jobs as a lifeguard and camp counselor yet that role turned into head costumer for camp performances! Clearly  aesthetics are also important outcomes from Virginia’s passion for art and design.  She has already demonstrated excellent illustration, draping and flat patterning skills and a sense of adventure for figuring out how best to make what she illustrates come to life and deliver both function and fashion. Taking textiles and creating the garment that reaches the potential of that textile is a joyful pursuit.

Teresa Hernandez
Cal State University, Northridge

My name is Teresa Hernandez and I am a junior in California State University at Northridge, majoring apparel design and production. As my design philosophy,  I truly find the simple things in life the most fulfilling. The mere naturalness of life and how it’s interconnected fascinates and inspires me. Creation itself is a phenomenon that was meant to be preserved and maintained. Every individual has a unique contribution to the world and how we view it. Circulating this indescribable feeling; which never needs to be defined. As beauty is a universal language, which we all may communicate with the absence of words. Growing up in the least desirable neighborhood, taught me that life is what you create it to be; thus design allows you to construct a your own reality by witnessing a once fantasized dream come to life. Throughout life the simplicity of nature is the most genuine because when compared to the secular sphere, it is the most content and constant. Thus as graceful flowers do, I believe we should all sprout, bloom, thrive and grow.

Jeanne Lynn Douglass
Cornell University

Jeanne Douglass is from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, and is a senior at Cornell University majoring in Fiber Science and Apparel Design. She is a two time recipient of the Barbara L. Kuhlman Scholarship for Fiber Arts/Wearable Arts. Outside of the classroom she participates in the Cornell Design League, which hosts an annual runway show, and works at the Cornell Fitness Centers. Jeanne recently returned from a semester studying abroad in Florence, Italy at the Lorenzo de Medici School. While in Europe she traveled to Rome, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, and Krakow, finding inspiration in each new place. This summer Jeanne is interning with Ralph Lauren Collection in New York City.

Johana Martinez
CSULA

Born and raised in beautiful Santa Barbara, California Johana developed a love for nature at an early age hiking along the American Riviera, kayaking and taking long walks at the beach. A Mexican-American who draws inspiration from nature, art and a multitude of cultures developed a love for fashion at age 5. Designing pieces of art and constructing functional garments is her goal, and she attributes her mother as her fashion icon, and the freedom to dress however she wanted created her strong sense of style. Johana recently received her A.A in Product Development from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise in Los Angeles and is currently working on a B.A in Fashion Design from California State University, Los Angeles.

Lindsey Schuyler
Florida State

Lindsey Schuyler was born in Saint Augustine, FL, our nation’s oldest city. Growing up in a rich cultural environment led to an early interest in history and handiworks.  Early schooling in the gifted program led to Schuyler attending Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, a magnet school with intensive programs in both arts and educational curriculum. She trained in the visual arts, focusing primarily on printmaking and photography. During high school she travelled to Spain in a group exchange with St. Augustine’s historical sister city, Aviles. The sights she saw, coupled with an interest in design inherited from her architect father, led to Schuyler’s further pursuit of design training. The Florida State University program offered a unique curriculum based not only in apparel design, but with classes offered in fashion merchandising as well. Schuyler now studies design, alongside real-life workings of the retail industry.

Natalie Haddox
Art Institute of  California, San Francisco

Natalie Haddox graduated from Stanford University in 2005 with a degree in Human Biology. She is currently studying fashion design at the Art Institute of California- San Francisco. When she is not working in the design room, she enjoys golf, skiing, hiking and has become an avid bicyclist. As an active woman with style, Natalie sees a need for activewear that is both attractive and functional. She believes if women are offered more stylish options in workout and activewear, they will be more inclined to incorporate fitness into their everyday lives. Her career ambitions center around having the opportunity to work in an environment where innovation is valued and the modern, active woman is celebrated.

Wildrose Hamilton
Colorado State 

Wildrose Hamilton is a third year student at Colorado State University, and will be doing her capstone this coming fall. With fine art as her first passion, her aim is to create garments that bridge the gap between ready-to-wear and wearable art. She enjoys thinking of a garment as both a two-dimensional painting and a three-dimensional sculpture. Growing up in Colorado has honed her appreciation for the outdoors, and she thinks that nothing is as wonderful as a summer bike ride along the Poudre River. In the future, Wildrose hopes to become an illustrator, designer, or textile designer.