Graduating Georgia Southern vogue scholar catches stars
As a baby, Margaret Riggs’ first designs seemed just like the sketches of most youngsters: two-dimensional attire with blocky sleeves, coloured in crayon. A far cry from her newest masterpieces, which earned the graduating vogue merchandising scholar a nomination from the Kennedy Heart American Faculty Theatre Competition this 12 months.
Riggs was drawn to the style merchandising program at Georgia Southern College after operating out of an audition for a highschool play. Appearing in “Shrek the Musical” was not her cup of tea, she determined, however making and mending costumes for her classmates suited her passion of stitching garments. One present led to costuming many of the reveals at her highschool, together with “Deliver It On,” for which Riggs acquired an honorable point out on the 2022 Shuler Awards.
“I noticed I might simply preserve doing this; I didn’t should cease,” she mentioned, reflecting on her choice to proceed the profession she began in highschool. “I like designing, however I additionally love creating the costumes and going from designs to patterns, to stitching them collectively, to the ending touches – I like the entire course of.”
Of all of the applications within the state, the Georgia native picked Georgia Southern’s Bachelor of Science in Vogue Merchandising and Attire Design program as a result of it provided an emphasis in design and instruction on working related software program. Together with her schooling from Georgia Southern, Riggs has been in a position to grasp garment building, patterns, drafting and extra whereas being mentored by her professors and taking part in additional musical theater reveals like “Peter and the Starcatcher,” which was nominated for an award on the regional Kennedy Heart American Faculty Theatre Competition.
Difficult her typical “neat and clear” aesthetic, “Peter and the Starcatcher” known as for daring patterns to decorate pirates, rough-and-tumble orphans, a colourful nanny and mermaids that seemed as if they’d been conjured from items of the ocean flooring. Riggs wove picket sea creatures into wigs, stretched netting over tails and used vivid sequins and stripes to maintain the motley crew wanting appropriately chaotic.
“Getting out of your consolation zone is the place essentially the most creativity is,” she mirrored. “The present pushed me to suppose exterior of the field and never do issues based mostly on my intestine response, however on how every little thing incorporates collectively and what the designs talk. Being uncomfortable made the designs distinctive and visually interesting.”
With nothing however a tassel between her and commencement, she is wanting ahead to the following step in her profession: a summer season internship as a stitcher within the costume store on the Tony-award successful Utah Shakespeare Competition. After her internship, she is contemplating persevering with in theater or increasing her abilities by exploring totally different branches of vogue, corresponding to merchandising and movie, and incomes a grasp’s diploma. Wherever Riggs’ creative journey takes her, she’s wanting to face the challenges forward and proceed to push herself.
“Faculty has positively been about studying to take dangers and take a look at new issues,” she mentioned. “Trying again in the present day and seeing all of the methods I’ve modified provides me a variety of hope. I’m not the particular person I used to be after I began faculty, and that’s a superb factor.”
