How fashion education fosters retail entrepreneurship
By Lena Moreno, December 9, 2025
Through the doorway of Apparelscapes in Building 45 is a workspace-transformed boutique showcasing exclusive apparel created by Apparel Merchandising & Management students.
The student-run micro-business is part of the AMM department’s senior capstone project operated by fashion retail students on campus. Outside the boutique floor, students work behind the scenes utilizing high-standard equipment such as heat-pressing stations, printing and embroidery tools in support of the shop’s front and back-end teams.
The boutique operates four days a week while hosting multiple pop-ups each semester, developing beyond its initial days starting as an occasional pop-up.
“To me, it’s like the difference between night and day to see how much it’s grown,” said AMM lecturer Alejandra Parise.
Simultaneous to running the boutique and events, Apparelscapes students also collaborate with campus affiliates to create exclusive pieces for them.
“It is definitely more driven to have more multitasking for the students, which is realistic,” Parise said. “Every job in the industry requires multiple deadlines, multiple items and I really think that mimics what the industry is going to offer for them.”
One of the more prominent partnerships is with the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center, as they create collections sold at the horse shows held on the first Sunday of every month.
“Our process includes developing design concepts, presenting them to the Arabian Horse Center staff for approval, sourcing products and producing some of the items in-house,” said marketing team member Ayuka Toshimoto. “The full development process typically takes two to three months.”
The merchandise sold at the boutique is generally CPP or AMM themed pieces containing vintage-inspired prints, unique fonts or embroidered designs, as shown on the Apparelscapes website. Items for purchase include t-shirts, baby tees, zip-up sweaters, sweatshirts, tote bags, plushies and more, adhering to different preferences and styles for students.
New merchandise is mostly designed and fully produced by students according to the latest season or collaboration. For example, Apparelscapes sold fall-themed merch in October at the annual CPP Pumpkin Festival.
Currently, its latest Christmas collection is Snoopy themed in tandem with the holidays that includes different print designs of the character.
As new drops come and go, older collections are sold at discounted prices inside the Building 45 boutique.
Apparelscapes has been around for almost two decades, according to professor and AMM department chair Chitra Dabas. Its supporting faculty help supervise the shop, providing AMM students with historical understanding on how operations and protocols function before they begin hands-on projects for the shop.
“We use more than 15 different types of tools and technology in the Apparelscapes business,” Dabas said. “It has to do with data management, point of sales management, designing the product, printing the product and embroidering the product. (There is) ongoing training on how to utilize those tools to run the business as well.”
As a registered business on campus, faculty manage documentation paperwork and financial transactions that are reported to the university, according to Dabas.
Parise said although faculty help facilitate the business, the students pitch and come up with the products featured in the boutique and pop-ups all on their own.
As a senior capstone course, the production process includes three back-end teams: warehouse, marketing and buying/sourcing. When producing new merchandise, some of the duties within this process include garment printing, embroidery, heat pressing and direct-to-garment printing.
The front-end teams include the retail boutique and pop-up, all of which support the initiatives of the retail team. This way members are managing the boutique and pop-ups with full-stocked inventory to sell, according to Toshimoto.
The marketing team also advertises and promotes new drops on social media, its webpage and around.
Students work in the retail team for seven weeks, switch roles and then work in one of the back-end teams. Such hands-on practices allow students to explore what they enjoy most in fashion retailing, according to Dabas.
“They’re talking to vendors,” Dabas said. “They’re talking to the university community, trying to figure out how to set an event together under our supervision, but with all of the responsibility of fulfilling the commitment to that event.”
The Apparelscapes website promotes the latest merch, former work and items available for purchase and pick-up at the boutique. The boutique maintains an active social media presence promoting sneak-peaks into new collections and updated boutique and pop-up hours.
