Fashion lab makeover adds work space

Story and photos by D.J. Ochoa

Pima Community College remodeled its fashion lab over the summer as part of ongoing efforts to help students gain experience in the billion-dollar fashion industry.

The new West Campus lab offers a spacious work area, new equipment and new curriculum to students who are pursuing a career in fashion.

Instructor Nancy Spaulding checks student projects.

Nancy Spaulding, fashion design instructor, said the redesigned lab uses space wisely.

“The lab was essentially two classrooms, and the facility department at Pima decided to make it one classroom,” she said. “Making it one classroom gives students more room to work on different types of projects throughout the semester.”

Spaulding is no stranger to the fashion industry. Before becoming an instructor at PCC, she worked for fashion companies on the east and west coasts.

A Carl Perkins grant helped the fashion department purchase new equipment.

“We were able to get computerized pattern making, new software that will possibly add new courses, laptops and a lot of new equipment for our lab,” Spaulding said. “We were also able to purchase professional cutting tables that are used in the industry, which the students can use while working on projects.”

The fashion lab also added a new laundry room, a new dressing room and a creative display case.

Spaulding said fashion department enrollment continues to grow, with students eager to educate themselves.

“Enrollment for the fashion courses has increased since I started in the spring of 2007,” she said. “We had about 132 students who signed up for the fashion courses then, and last spring we had around 192 students.”

A fashion department display window looks like a storefront.