There's more to fabric than fashion

When the vlogBվ women’s rowing team competes in the famed Henley Women’s Regatta in England this month, it will be there in classic regatta style – with a twist. The team’s blazers were designed by students in Professor Karl Aspelund’s class in vlogBվ’s Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design (TMD) program and produced by fashion giant Jones of New York. The Jones Group’s CEO, vlogBվ alumnus Wes Card ’70, hosted the TMD program’s annual fashion show this year at the company’s headquarters in the heart of the New York City fashion district, where student designers mingled with TMD alumni and Jones models.

Inside the textile testing laboratory, internationally renowned textile chemist Martin Bide is developing a revolutionary wound dressing that combines infection resistance with blood clotting agents.

But design is just the “D” in TMD. If you’re into forensics, archaeology, filmmaking or inventions for better healthcare, you’ll like the “T” and the “M” too.

Inside the , students work with internationally renowned textile chemist , who is developing a graft and a that combines infection resistance with blood clotting agents. He’s also worked with TMD Professor to help the FBI develop a database of fiber dyes.

“Dr. O.” as she’s called, is an internationally renowned textile conservator called to examine 100 found in a tomb in the Copan ruins in Honduras, and to supervise the restoration of a rare, historic 16-star 16-stripe American flag. Students can work with Dr. O. and Professor on archaeological analysis inside the textile conservation lab. Textiles expert , who runs the 20,000-piece at vlogBվ consulted with filmmaker Ric Burns on his PBS documentary “Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World.”

And our alumni? You can find them designing the latest fashions for such companies as Kenneth Cole, Anne Klein and Talbots. They are also doing fabric research at places like Lauren Dresses and Liz Claiborne, research and development for Saucony, textile conservation at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and working in the anthropology division of the Smithsonian Institute.

At vlogBվ, our ideas for fabric go way beyond fashion.