Mizzou Botanic Garden to host fashion show, Jan. 4

COLUMBIA, Mo.– Mizzou Botanic Garden will showcase new plants and original fashions at its first plant fashion show, Friday, Jan. 4, at 7 p.m. in Stotler Lounge inside Memorial Union on the University of Missouri campus.

In partnership with the National Green Centre in St. Louis, Mizzou Botanic Garden will receive plants with names like “Shasta Daisy ‘Freak!’” and “Shining Sensations Weigela” from companies across the United States. Tiger Garden will help prepare the plants for their debut by decorating the containers that will hold them.

Human models will style clothing designed to complement their plant counterparts. Students in the textile and apparel management (TAM) program of the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences designed the clothing.

Senior Sara Kahrs is designing a piece to reflect her plant, “Celosia Intenz.” She learned about the competition when a member of Mizzou Botanic Gardens visited a design class and encouraged TAM students to participate.

“I think it’s awesome to have different fields at Mizzou cooperating to work together on something that showcases both sides of work,” she said.

Kahrs says she developed her passion for fashion design through 4-H. She competed in the 4-H Fashion Revue and won several honors.

Her design for “Celosia Intenz” will include a “textural detail” around the neckline. She dyed the fabric to imitate the color of the flower.

“We’re appealing to two different types of people: those interested in plants and those interested in fashion, and anyone in between,” said Karlan Seville, manager of communications for MU Campus Facilities.

The fashion show will include a number of special guests, including Vince Dooley, a horticulturist and former head football coach and athletic director at the University of Georgia, and his neighbor, Michael Dirr, a professor of horticulture at Georgia.

Dirr’s book “Manual of Woody Landscape Plants” has become the handbook for woody ornamental plants.

“He’s kind of one of the rock stars of horticulture in North America,” said Pete Millier, the director of Mizzou Botanic Garden.

Dirr will lead a “plant walk” Jan. 5 to examine and discuss many of plants across campus that make up the Mizzou Botanic Garden. The tour will begin in at 9:30 a.m. in room 2206 in the MU Student Center. In case of inclement weather, Dirr will still give a presentation in the room.

Admission to the fashion show is $5 and includes desserts and beverages. There will be a cash bar for beer and wine. The plant walk is $20 for Mizzou Botanic Garden members and $25 for non-members and will include breakfast and lunch.

For more information, go to gardens.missouri.edu or call 573-882-4240.