Just like many industries today, technology has changed the world of apparel design.
Genet Orme is one of two full-time apparel design professors at BYU-Idaho. She’s been teaching here for four years and helped build the apparel design major.
“We’re lucky on this campus, we have the luxury of being able to kind of cherry pick across this campus,” Orme said. “Because of the way this campus works with interdisciplinary degrees, we’ve been able to cherry pick all over campus to get what we need to fill the major.”
Orme has worked to partner the university with local businesses such as Klim in Rigby.
“The first place I went to talk was Klim down in Rigby and said, ‘How come we don’t have an internship with you? You’re basically in our backyard.’ And they said, ‘Because you’re not prepared enough to work at the level we’re working right now,’” Orme said. “And I said, ‘What do we need to do to get prepared to do that?’ and she put a paper across the table and said, ‘When your students can do this, you come back and talk to me.’”
Students who are in and have graduated from the apparel design major have become interns and employees at successful businesses. Some students even have their own businesses.
Listen for more information about the apparel design major.