The West Virginia University Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design cut the ribbon on its new textiles laboratory Friday afternoon.
The Amy A. Bircher Textiles Laboratory was designed as a creative space for fashion, dress and merchandising students in the Davis College. The textiles laboratory was made possible by a $200,000 gift from Amy A. Bircher, for whom the laboratory is named.
A 1993 graduate of the Davis College with a degree in textiles, clothing and fashion merchandising, Bircher has become a leader in the textile industry. She worked with WVU to create the lab to provide fashion, dress and merchandising students with essential hands-on experience dyeing, printmaking, crocking, abrasion testing, tensile strength testing, yarn twisting, and colorfastness.
Bircher is the CEO of MMI Textiles Inc., a premier supplier to the textile marketplace. MMI Textiles produces fabrics, webbing, binding tape, hook and loop, hardware, label, and more. The company seeks to initiate innovation through collaborative partnerships, a focus on customer satisfaction, and sustainability.
Davis College Dean and Director Darrell Donahue said the project has been in the works since before he became dean, about a year and a half ago, so he was not involved in the initial stages of the textile lab’s development.
Donahue said it might be too early to determine the potential benefits the textiles lab might present to the Morgantown area as a whole, but there has been discussion between him and Bircher about textiles in the state of West Virginia.
He said there is some movement in the United States to bring textiles manufacturing back to the country, which lost a lot of its domestic textiles manufacturing in the 1980s to overseas markets. He said Morgantown did have a thriving textiles industry in the 20th century, and as WVU students and faculty begin to look at new textiles, it’s possible the industry could begin to return to the area.
“We could see small startup companies branching out from the university, from research projects and interest of students in doing some of these basic material properties of textiles,” Donahue said.
He said he thinks Bircher’s vision for the textiles lab was foundational and opened up various opportunities for the Davis College and its students. With the addition of the lab, Davis College faculty can begin to write grants and reach out to other people who may be willing to support the lab to bring in other types of material testing equipment.
He said the lab has also made it possible for WVU and its fashion, dress and merchandising to be program a focal point similar to North Carolina State University’s textile and materials lab, which is regarded as the standard in the industry in the United States.
Donahue said that was one of Bircher’s visions, too — that the university would build a lab around what she has done that could help people in the textiles industry have options in testing the products they’re making.
“She had the foresight and insight to provide the foundational monies to set us up for success, to really broaden that lab and make our lab both collaborative and competitive with other labs across the United States,” Donahue said.
While Donahue has not been involved with the project of its entirety, Davis College Visiting Assistant Professor of Fashion, Dress and Merchandising Elizabeth Shorrock has.
Shorrock said she was initially hired for one semester three years ago. During that semester, she conversed with a colleague who told Shorrock about Bircher. Shorrock got Bircher’s contact information in the hopes of making a connection and arranging for Bircher to donate textiles or excess fabric to students.
Shorrock said during conversations, Bircher bemoaned the fact that the Davis College’s fashion, dress and merchandising program was no longer as focused on textiles as it was when Bircher attended the university. They discussed what they would like to see happen at the university and the relationship between Shorrock and Bircher made both women’s dreams a reality.
She said the initial focus of the textiles lab is to expand the Introduction to Textiles class, which has been limited because the university has not had a space to house necessary equipment or facilitate tests that involve chemicals and water.
“This fall, I will have the ability to bring students down to the lab and do all of these hands-on experiments, so they get further knowledge or exposure to different aspects of textiles and different aspects of the textiles industry and what tests are involved,” Shorrock said.
She said an additional benefit of the lab is it can be used as a dyeing and printing lab, and can serve as an open studio for students when it is not being used for the Introduction to Textiles course.
“Our focus is on sustainability, so we are really exploring and working with natural dyes and we are actually putting in a natural dye garden this spring. So, we’ll be growing a lot of the plant material that we need to show students how you don’t have to buy synthetic dyes or involve chemicals like is very common in the industry. We can actually accomplish a lot by using plant materials,” Shorrock said.
She said in terms of the general public, the Davis College would like to open its lab up and offer workshops regarding things like indigo dyeing or other natural dyeing processes. The lab is equipped with a 24-foot-long, continuous table where students can design and print their own fabric, but could also be made available to other students in the college and potentially to the general public for workshops in the summer or on weekends.
Shorrock said she is pleased with the expanded opportunities for students the textiles lab provides. She said to her, textiles are the most important part of the fashion industry — it determines everything. Most students currently don’t have enough holistic knowledge of textiles, but the lab will provide them with a chance to learn more about sustainability and how the concept should influence their decision-making.
“I’m just really excited about the students. I already have a few students that are unofficially using the space because they have never had the ability to do all of these things before. I’m very much looking forward to what the students end up doing with all this new space and new equipment and new knowledge,” she said.
Amy Bircher could not be reached for comment regarding the WVU Davis College’s new textiles laboratory.
Tweet @DominionPostWV
