Nancy Lyons | ART IS Wearable with Fashion | Guild Program

Nancy Lyons, Professor Emerita of Consumer Sciences, South Dakota State University shared this presentation from her specialty - clothing and fashion and wearable art - as part of this South Dakota Art Museum Guild season’s overarching them, "ART IS..."

Lyons has followed clothing fashion throughout her career that began when she sketched fashions and sewed them while growing up in North Dakota. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design and a Master’s in Textiles and Clothing. Between earning her degrees, she worked as a designer for Jones of Dallas in Dallas, TX. Since coming to teach at SDSU in 1977, Lyons has stayed immersed in the fashion industry by taking students on study trips to the New York City Garment District. The Garment District, known as the center for fashion design and manufacturing in the United States since the early 20th Century, gives students a view of cutting edge fashion design. Lyons’s expertise carries across the Great Plains as she teaches online merchandising as part of a consortium Master’s program with Oklahoma State University.

“I believe what we call ‘Wearable Art’ uses imagination and free expression to share personal vision,” according to Lyons.

“Fashion is just the medium,” she said, “much as a visual artist chooses the material by which to create art.” In a number of published books, noted historian Anne Hollander describes dress having status as visual art because it follows the same rules to which paintings ascribe.

Guild membership is encouraged but not required to attend monthly programs. Dues of $20 per year support Guild programs and contribute to the museum’s Art Acquisitions Fund. Learn more: www.SouthDakotaArtMuseum.com/Guild.