Colleen Moretz: Sustainable Fashion Design Exploration: Transformation to Zero-Waste WVU Art in the Libraries Faculty Exhibit Award-Winning Exhibit
On display at the WVU Downtown Library Room 1020 through May 2023Program with Prof. Moretz & Students: March 1: YouTube recording here
Colleen Moretz, Associate Professor of Fashion, Dress & Merchandising:
"Sustainability has been at the center of my scholarship across the apparel and textile disciplines. Focusing my creative design scholarship on sustainability generates awareness of sustainable issues within the apparel industry to hopefully encourage change in fashion practices. This concentration on sustainability has been an evolution of investigating sustainable design processes through the exploration of transformation, aesthetics, zero waste, and up-cycling.
The exhibition includes my work alongside zero-waste designs by my Fashion Design Management 350, 2022 students."
With a BS in Fashion Design from the University of Delaware Colleen Moretz (worked for several years as a buyer…visual merchandising, in marketing and advertising, opening of branch stores before) embarking upon an entrepreneurial career as a distinctive upscale fashion designer with an extensive range of creativity crisscrossing high fashion bridal gowns and evening wear and women’s ensembles-ultimately launching her own brand of exclusive bridal gowns.
Colleen’s artistic expression gained recognition with the DuPont Company through a futuristic collection and integrating the Calico company’s interior fabrics for apparel; this visionary collection was featured at the prestigious Hollidazzle held at the nationally acclaimed cultural venue, Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. Redkin acknowledged and featured Colleen’s innovative and dramatic collection talents for their international traveling trend exposé. Whether gallery exhibits or trade organizations, Colleen has claimed countless winning designs, to name a few- ITAA (International Textile Apparel Association), MA (Indianapolis Museum of Art) and the Goldstein Museum of Design at the University of Minnesota, winning the Dean’s Scholar Award.
Colleen’s unrelenting pursuit for professional growth went onto complete an MFA in Visual Arts from Marywood University where her thesis on digitally designed play-on-words fabrics was featured in the prestigious Mahady Gallery. She continues academic development to enhance her academic and technological skill-sets studying at, Iowa State University, Moore College of Art & Design, and NYC’s Fashion Institute of Technology--- in the areas of experimental and advanced technology for the apparel industry. Her dynamic creative range resulted in invitations as a design critic at the Drexel University’s Fashion Design department, for the University of Delaware’s Senior Design Collection, and as a presenter at University of Minnesota’s Symposia and ITAA conventions.