Q&A | Senior fashion design student prepares for end-of-the-year show | Life and Arts

At the end of every spring semester, fashion design students at the University of Cincinnati’s (UC) Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) send their creations down the runway at the end-of-the-year fashion show, unveiling their senior collection and showingcasing the skills they’ve acquired in their time at UC. One of this semester’s seniors who will exhibit her line at the show is Annie Backs. The News Record sat down with Backs to discuss her line “Choose the Energy” and the inspiration behind it.

The News Records (TNR): What was the inspiration for the line?

Annie Backs (AB): A big thing while brainstorming for my collection was that I was thinking a lot about the past few years, you know, the state of the world and how it has affected so many people’s mental health. A lot of the changes that we have gone through, they’ve been so isolating and a lot of people have really been forced to take control of their happiness in creative ways. I’ve researched through listening to podcasts, reading articles and that book called “The Happiness Advantage” by Shawn Achor.

I really loved this quote, it says “happiness advantage also lies in the small momentary blips of positivity that pepper our lives each day. As we have seen just a short, humorous video clip, a quick conversation with a friend or even a small gift of candy can produce significant and immediate boosts in cognitive power and job performance.”

I thought that maybe through a collection, I could do something that would trigger a burst of happiness in somebody. I wanted to create a women’s wear collection that accentuates femininity with bright colors and bold prints. I actually created my own prints using a lot of images that I sourced and a lot of the imagery that I sourced came from things that make people happy.

TNR: Why did you choose the name “Choose the Energy” for your collection? What does it mean to you?

AB: My whole concept is about choosing things that make you happy and choosing the energy that you want to put into things and how you can get that energy back by controlling certain aspects of your life.

TNR: What does the collection include?

AB: There are five pieces. There are three dresses, a romper and one pair of flare pants. I also am using a lot of power-mesh to do tights and underlays of some of the outfits.

TNR: What was the process of bringing this line to life?

AB: I started research this last May. The summer was a lot about looking in ourselves and hearing out things that we’re really passionate about and then conceptualizing everything. Toward the end of the semester, we started ideating, which includes basically a ton of drawing ideas and drawing like 150 thumbnails of different silhouettes with tiny changes.

After that, we all went on Co-op and then came back for the spring semester. Since, everyone has been working on finalizing the prints, fabrics, color, themes and sewing. Then we had our muslin critique, basically our rough drafts of our looks. We have our final muslin prototype due soon and then after that, we’ll start sewing in our final fabrics before photographing.

TNR: Is the line like what you usually design or is this something new for you?

AB: I guess in some ways, it’s similar. I focus a lot on dresses specifically and I think a lot of my silhouettes tend to be similar, but conceptually I feel like it’s different because a lot of times artists, included, talk a lot about anxiety. I wanted to make this a really positive collection and to be happy while working on it.

TNR: Was it challenging to try and put the anxiety to the side and make this happy line?

AB: I actually think it’s been really helpful. It’s my inspiration and also just, in general, I’m doing this work so much that I feel like it increases my mood, which I really appreciate.

TNR: What’s your favorite thing about this line?

AB: I like the colors. I just wanted to go full-out with the colors. They’re super vibrant and kind of ’60s and ’70s inspired with the prints. Something I’m really looking forward to is photographing this collection. I want to do it as a picnic with all kinds of fun food and it’s just going to bring out all the colors.

TNR: Do you have a favorite out of the five?

AB: The green look with the cutout. I just think it’s really fun and it’s flattering as well.

TNR: Who do you see wearing these pieces and when?

AB: The target audience is Gen Z and Millennial women just looking to have a great time and express themselves through the pieces, someone that’s not afraid to make a statement with what they’re wearing.

TNR: What are you looking forward to most with this line?

AB: I’m definitely really excited for the fashion show, but I think I’m most excited for the look book because I really like exploring styling with that because I get to have fun with accessorizing setting up the actual scene of where you’re take the photos.