Studio 412, officially known as the Point Park Fashion Collective, is a brand-new club on campus focused on fashion, creativity, and networking within the fashion industry.
Saoirse Buckley, a sophomore multimedia major, and Maya Siegler, a freshman PR/AD major founded Studio 412 this semester. Buckley serves as the club’s president and Siegler serves as the treasurer.
Buckley, who originally had the idea for the club, created Studio 412 to provide a community for students interested in fashion. She saw a gap in Point Park’s clubs, stating that while there are groups focused on many creative fields, there wasn’t one dedicated to the fashion industry.
“I wanted to create a community of people who are engaged in the same thing,” Buckley said. “There’s not a club [on campus] that surrounds the fashion industry.”
With the club up and running, Studio 412 invites all undergraduate students with an interest in fashion, regardless of major, to attend as long as they meet the university’s standard of a 2.5 GPA requirement for student organizations.
“Anyone can join the fashion club, I’m open to having anyone join,” Buckley said.
The club’s mission statement says their goal is to educate members about fashion in global media, providing networking opportunities with industry professionals for their members.
Events will include guest speakers, workshops, discussions on fashion trends and, hopefully, fashion shows.
“A lot of the meetings will be presentations on fashion media currently and highlighting local businesses, small designers, and what’s going on in the fashion industry right now,” Buckley said. “Like if there was a recent fashion show or like release of a line, we would like to discuss that.”
The club is already planning a variety of activities, including trips to thrift stores and local fashion events.
We’re planning maybe to go to the bins at Goodwill or some thrift stores or something,” Siegler said, “and we also want to do a big trip to the Carnegie Mellon fashion show.”
Collaboration with the local fashion scene is also another priority for Studio 412. Buckley and Siegler have both expressed interest in working with designers and businesses to give students a deeper understanding of the industry.
“Yeah, we definitely want to,” Siegler said. “Saoirse was trying to work with this grad student. I’m pretty sure she’s going for fashion, but it couldn’t work out because graduate students aren’t allowed to be in our club.”
A long-term goal for the club is to host a student-led fashion show, though Buckley and Siegler have acknowledged that it may take time to build the resources and membership to make it happen.
“Right now, we just don’t have like enough people to have a fashion show or the kind of funds to be able to get supplies and stuff like that, but we hope in a couple of years, or the next year or maybe the one after that, we just would like to get more on top of things,” Siegler said.
Students interested in joining can follow the club on Instagram at @PPUFashionCollective for updates on meetings and events.
“We’re about to plan our next meeting. I’m starting tomorrow,” Buckley said. “We’re going to meet and plan for the next meeting, and then there will be posters everywhere.”
As the club continues to establish itself, Buckley and Siegler encourage anyone with an interest in fashion to get involved, whether they want to be active members or just attend occasional events.
