The Department of Theatre, College of Engineering and Department of Fashion and Design collaborated to produce an exhibit of works by the fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick, known as Halston.

Halston was a preeminent fashion designer in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s who designed clothes for stars such as Lauren Bacall and Liza Minnelli. Lipscomb fashion professor Katy Bates said he was an important American designer.

“He was kind of a forerunner in what he did,” Bates said. “He always was forward thinking in his collaborations and in doing a lower price line with J. C. Penney. He was one of the first to do that. The first to use a black model on a runway. He did a pillbox hat that Jackie Kennedy wore. He’s just got a lot of significant historical events and firsts.”

The exhibit features several garments displayed on a revolving stage surrounded by fashion photographs projected onto the walls with theatrical lighting.

On top of the stage are several mannequins dressed in brightly colored gowns and pantsuits. And the stage itself was designed by five mechanical engineering students as their senior projects.

Senior Gabriela Barboza designed the panels and some of the lower portions of the stage. She had been working on designing the stage last semester.

“My biggest takeaway would be just being able to think about the actual manufacturing process,” Barboza said. “You can design it one way, but you always have to think about how it’s going to be built actually.”

The garments on the rotating stage are only a small portion of a collection of Halston’s work that Lipscomb owns. The entire collection consists of sixty-five garments as well as original watercolors of dress designs, storyboards, patterns, videos and a large number of photographs.

The collection originally belonged to Borghese Cosmetics and sat in storage for many years until CEO Georgette Mosbacher discovered the storage bills in 2002 while trying to streamline the company’s finances.

According to Bates, Borghese was originally going to donate the collection to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, but the institute did not have space to store the entire collection.

Rather than break up the collection, Mosbacher decided to search for another recipient. She ultimately chose Lipscomb University to honor her mother who was from Nashville.

When not on exhibit the collection is stored in the library and in the basement of the Hughes building. Fashion professors bring out certain pieces from time to time to show students examples of what they are currently studying.

The exhibit will be on display until March 26 in the John C. Hutcheson Gallery in the Hughes building.

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