Plus-size model and SU alumna Emme influences fashion design curriculum, launches year-long contest

This fall, Syracuse University became the first U.S. college to stretch its fashion design curriculum to size 12.

The College of Visual and Performing Arts’ (VPA) fashion and design department launched its “Fashion Without Limits” program through leading plus-size model and SU alumna Emme's initiative. Through the new yearlong program, students learn to create dresses greater than size 6.

“I was honestly shocked to find out nobody’s done this,” said Todd Conover, fashion design program coordinator and assistant professor. “That no school in the United States has ever approached this.”

Only 30 percent of the fashion market caters to the mannequin size 6, said fashion design junior Michelle Lee, who is participating in the program. This cuts off a huge part of the fashion marketplace. Lee hopes that with the "Fashion Without Limits" program, she and her classmates will have a more diverse understanding. “I thought it was something that was really missing,” she said.

The VPA is also pushing past just size 12, she said, teaching students how to design for sizes 16, 18 and 20 as well. She said she wasn’t surprised that no other college had done this. “I think it’s a category within fashion that gets ignored a lot,” Lee said.

But VPA started a trend with the "Fashion Without Limits" initiative, with Kent State University and the Fashion Institute of Technology starting similar classes.

“The more the merrier!” Conover said.

The program began to evolve at SU about 1 1/2 years ago, when Emme started talking with her alma mater. Emme, a 1985 alumna of the speech communications program, had always been a good friend of the fashion program, Conover said. She approached him with plans to start a small pilot program where students learn to create clothes in larger sizes. The students would learn how to use grading and proportioning to make a dress that is just as lovely in size 12 as it is in size 2.

The standard dress form in the college fashion industry is a size 4-6, Conover said, so no plus-size forms existed within the department. Emme changed this with a personal visit to Wolf Model Form Co., which then made and donated personalized size 12 forms using Emme’s own body measurements. This was the first time Wolf Model Form Co. ever partnered with a university, and it took away the burden of cost for the "Fashion Without Limits" program.

The initiative was originally aimed at juniors, who would start to study draping for a larger body shape through the program. Emme proposed a competition where all juniors would create a plus-size dress for the department’s final fashion show. The winner would receive a cash prize and the opportunity for Emme, or any other plus-size model of the student’s choice, to wear his or her creation on a red carpet.

Starting next year, the program will be extended to the sophomore level, when students will start to learn drawing skills that can help them grade their designs for full-figured women, Conover said. Then they will be even more prepared when they enter junior year and begin to create their tangible size 12 designs.

Conover believes this will give a healthier “look” to fashion. “It’s totally important,” he said. “A wonderful sort of connection to fashion.”

Since Emme doesn’t like the label “plus-size,” she and the VPA are hoping to find a friendlier word. They’ll have plenty of time to find one, since Emme has committed to several years of the plus-size competition at the final show. 

Conover, and the VPA as a whole, hope to keep this class as a set part of the curriculum, with ideas of adding a senior capstone “plus-size collection.” With this, all levels within the fashion and design program will be on board.

All students are welcome to the program’s final show on April 23.

“I’m really excited,” Lee said. “I want to win the competition.”