Designer Natalie Chanin to Visit TCD for Annual Convocation

07 Oct 2008    

Designer Natalie Chanin will be in the department on October 15 and 16, and will be the featured speaker at the annual TCD Convocation, taking place from 5 - 7 p.m. on Wednesday October 15 in Nebraska Union on UNL's city campus. Chanin's appearance is funded in part by a grant from the UNL Faculty Senate's Convocations Committee.

The annual convocation provides students, staff and faculty members a chance to meet colleagues and peers, hear about recent student internship and study tour experiences and plans for future internship and study tours, and gain insights into the textile and apparel professions and industry. Chanin's talk, Love Your Thread: Local Communities and Sustainability in the Global Marketplace, will start at approximately 6 p.m. in the NU Auditorium, opposite the Regency Suites where the convocation begins at 5 p.m. with a beverage and appetizer buffet for all TCD community members.

Natalie "Alabama" Chanin is the designer and owner/founder of Alabama Chain, a company that creates an array of limited-edition items for the individual and home. Using a mixture of new, organic and recycled materials, Chanin's products are constructed with care by artisans who live and work in local Alabama communities. All Alabama Chanin product lines are made by hand in the USA. Co-founder and partner in the highly successful Project Alabama from 2000 - 2006, Chanin embodies the innovation and vision of youthful textile and apparel entrepreneurship. A graduate of the School of Design at North Carolina State University, Chanin worked as a designer/stylist both in the US and in Europe from 1987 through 2000. A member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, she was a finalist for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum's Award for Fashion, and is a fellowship recipient of the Alabama State Council for the Arts.

Driven by her interests in sustainable production, incubating local businesses, strengthening rural economies, and slow growth, Chanin has applied a carbon imprint-sensitive model to building innovative businesses in the apparel and home decorating professions. Her design work has been featured in exhibitions including Evolution/Revolution: The Arts and Crafts in Contemporary Textiles at the Museum of Art of the Rhode Island School of Design, and has been featured in numerous publications including Women's Wear Daily and By Hand: The Use of Craft in Contemporary Art.

Chanin's visit to UNL is intended to inspire students and provide a model of successful art/design entrepreneurship. She will present about both her design approach and her business model to a range of classes including TXCD 225, TXCD 212 and TXCD 403/803, and she will have lunch with members of Montage, providing students additional opportunities to network and learn about her work.

The entire TCD community is invited to the annual Convocation, and the general public is invited to the 6 p.m. keynote presentation. Admission is free. Copies of Natalie Chanin's Alabama Stitch Book ($35.) will be available for purchase and autographing.