Get hands-on experience with industry-standard technology including a digital textile printer and LECTRA systems - an industry-based computer-aided design and merchandising work station.

Kathryn Ericksen Lohr Merchandising Research & Business Development Laboratory

Kathryn Ericksen Lohr Merchandising Research & Business Development Laboratory

  • Integral “smart” meeting/seminar room with teleconferencing capability
  • Tobii Eye-Tracker and eye tracking software installed in the lab supports faculty and student research into online consumer behavior and online merchandising enhancement.
  • Graphtec plotter/cutter installed in the product development workroom of the Kathryn Ericksen Lohr Merchandising Research & Business Development Laboratory  is available to students working in product development. The plotter interfaces with the Lectra Digitizer, allowing students and faculty to easily draft and grade garment pattern pieces.
Mary Mitchell Fashion Studio

Mary Mitchell Fashion Studio

The Mary Mitchell Fashion Studio in the Department of Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design is dedicated to a fashion illustrator that celebrated designer Oscar de la Renta described as "a true artist, elegant and masterful." It also honors the generosity of both Mary and John Mitchell who, through the University of Nebraska Foundation, endowed the Mary Mitchell Fashion Illustration Scholarship Fund and the Mary Mitchell Fashion Excellence Fund, and helped to underwrite the costs of the 2012 renovation of the department's main fashion design studio. Omaha-based Mary Mitchell worked as a fashion illustrator for some of the biggest names in Nebraska apparel retailing through the 1960s and 1970s. Her keen eye and refined drawing skills depicted the textures and silhouettes of numerous iconic brands of the period. Mary and John Mitchell's gifts will, for generations of students to come, help Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design students to successfully pursue and to ultimately realize their professional dreams. The studio includes 24 fully equipped sewing workstations, student lockers, a pattern digitizer, male and female dress forms, and the latest instructional technology.

Professor and student in textile weaving studio

Weaving and Surface Design Studios

  • Looms supported by an array of weave structure design software, and conventional floor looms, from 4 to 8 shafts
  • Textile print and dye area for surface design, equipped with a vacuum exposure table, a high volume steam chamber and dye facility, 2 20 foot print tables, and ventilation hood for handling powdered chemicals
Student Merchandising Facilities

Student Merchandising Facilities

  • Computer lab with 35 workstations equipped with industry-grade software including WindowsWear Pro, Visual Retailing® Software Suite, Adobe Creative Suite® and SimVenture® business planning software package.

Dr. Trout in Historic Textile and Costume Collections

Historic Textile and Costume Collections

  • Includes over 3,500 textiles, garments, and accessories
  • Holdings represent 19th and 20th century dress, with emphasis on 20th century American designers
  • Textile and ethnic dress collection includes items from India, China, Japan, the Middle East and Africa
Visit the Historic Costume archive
Student working in Splinter lab

Splinter Laboratory

  • Pilot scale equipment includes a complete custom built wet spinning line and a 30 gallon tumbler to produce protein and cellulose fibers
  • Includes a laboratory-scale mixing extruder that can be used to produce melt spun fibers
  • Features two electro-spinning systems that produce submicro and nano fibers
  • Complemented by a laboratory scale circular knitting machine
Robert Hillestad Gallery

Robert Hillestad Gallery

Named after an internationally renowned fiber artist, this gallery is specifically designed for the exhibition of textile arts and apparel. Throughout the year, a number of exhibits-from arts to apparel-are on display for students and the public.

  • Designed for exhibition of textiles - from art to apparel, from the Occident to the Orient, from past to the present, and from emerging artists to the acclaimed
  • Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design student juried and solo exhibitions are regularly featured
  • Dedicated to Dr. Robert Hillestad, an internationally renowned fiber artist and Professor Emeritus of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design
  • Unique focus on textiles and costume makes this a singular gallery in the USA’s midsection
  • Provides service as an educational outreach vehicle to the citizens of the state, as well as to visitors to Nebraska
Visit the Textile Gallery