Students investigate fashions
of Europe
By Morgan Conklin
Summer
Reporter
Imagine touring three European countries to learn
about the fashion industry while receiving course credits along the
way. That is what 18 students and adults are doing over the next 12
days as they travel to France, London and Scotland.
The course, Europe: International Retailing and
Fashion, is offered once every other year and is open to anyone interested.
Sally Harmon, internship conference director, said that the trip focuses
on catering to those students majoring in consumer science and retail
management, but a general callout is offered every other fall to anyone
interested.
The trip focuses its studies on the retail, fashion
and production industries. The students will be able to compare and
contrast the differences between the European industries to those in
the United States after they have visited the three countries.
The tour will take the travelers to Paris, France
for the first four days of the trip. There, the students will concentrate
their studies on the retail industry. They will visit major shopping
centers in the city and spend some time at the Louvre Museum where they
will see how the retail stores in the museum operate.
After Paris, the students will take the chunnel
to London, England to study fashion for four days. They will go to Harrods,
one of the largest department store chains in England, to get an inside
look at the different clothing collections.
The final days of the trip will be spent in Edinburgh,
Scotland. The students will visit textile mills to learn how fabric
is woven, manufactured and sold. At Burrell Museum, the students will
learn about the history of Scotland. The museum contains a collection
of artifacts, specific to Scotland, that have been collected over the
years.
Beth Phares, a senior in the School of Consumer
Family Sciences, said she is excited to go on the trip. "I will
never have an opportunity to see the fashion industry first-hand again,
so I am taking advantage of this trip now," she said.
To earn three Purdue credits for this course, the
students attended three, two-hour meetings throughout the spring semester.
A variety of speakers gave them insight to the purpose of the trip,
as well as general information concerning the three countries.
After that, it was the student’s responsibility
to read assignments, produce a travel journal, make a portfolio and
give an oral presentation to the other travelers. The students were
allowed to choose any aspect of one of the three countries that interested
them the most.
Harmon, who was also a chaperone for the trip,
said that the real purpose for the students was to see how the European
industry compared to the United States.
She also said that she hopes the students gain
a cultural perspective of the different countries. She said that in
order to understand and appreciate a country’s fashion, it is necessary
to have background information about the culture of a country. "Fashion
has always been interrelated with what is happening. The clothes reflect
the economic state of the country," Harmon said.
The trip was also open to those who were interested
in the experience, but didn’t want course credits. They went along
as auditors, basic tourists who were not required to do the research.
This year, students from Eastern Illinois University, two recent Purdue
graduates and a mother were among the auditors partaking in this trip.
The consumer science and retailing department as
well as the Center for Lifelong Learning cosponsor the European tour.
It costs $3295 for in-state students, and $4156 for out of state students.
The trip includes special health insurance, airfare, hotel accommodations
and many of the meals.
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