Q&A with UMN Apparel Design Students Julianne Bur and Zoë Weinmann
By Tosin Faseemo
Julianne Bur and Zoë Weinmann are students studying apparel design at the University of Minnesota. Both students have some of their work on display at the University of Minnesota Senior Apparel Design Fashion Showcase. Julianne has worked as a Human Factors Intern at NASA and currently focuses on designing apparel for optimal comfort and quality of fit. Zoë has had their work displayed at the Weisman Art Museum and they have an interest in creating comfortable plus-size clothing. Keep reading to find out more about the designers.
Julianne Bur
Q: What are you studying?
A: I am studying apparel design. And I just got accepted to the master's program here for human factors and ergonomics.
Q: What do you want to do with your master’s?
A: I was always interested in the technical aspects of sewing. I wanted to be a pattern maker. And then I found out about the human factors program. One of the professors here is named Dr. Dunn and she has affiliations with NASA and their human factors team. She got me an internship there last summer.
Q: What did you do during your internship?
A: I worked with the anthropometry and biomechanics facility. They're going to the moon again, and I helped with the new spacesuit. Astronauts have a lot of injuries from spacesuits and from training. So a partner and I worked on developing this vest that you wear. It has pressure-sensing textiles in it so that you can pinpoint the amount of pressure and placement of pressure on the body in areas that are the most sensitive. So it's helping prevent injury through informing yourself about the quantitative data of where the pressure is happening and what kind of force is being applied.
Q: Do you find yourself really drawn to applying fashion concepts to scientific data?
A: Yeah, definitely, it's kind of like a niche, like an odd niche.
Q: Tell me about your work in plus-size fashion.
A: My older sister is plus size and I would hear a lot of these complaints about issues with larger breast sizes. It's really tough to find a bra that is comfortable for plus sizes. I guess that really inspired me to just go for it and see what I could come up with. I had no idea what direction I was going or anything. But I ended up making nine prototypes. It's kind of hard to explain, but there's this little clip I 3D printed that goes where you usually have the strap meet the top of the cup. So if you have cup gaping, then you can make it tighter, and if you have spillage or it's just too uncomfortable and tight, you can loosen it, which I think was probably the most interesting part of that.
Zoë Weinmann
Q: Why did you choose to study apparel design?
A: I wanted to be a fashion designer from a very young age. I taught myself how to sew at the age of 9, and it was fascinating. I wanted to learn more about how to do this. Throughout high school, I was basically self-taught in making my own clothing. I was also doing costumes for theater. I wanted to pursue it in college and just overall make it into a career.
Q: What job do you envision yourself doing?
A: I have an interest in theater costumes, so I might do a little bit of that. I also, because I am a very creative person, I like to do different things, not be tied to one category of design. I might do custom ordering in some sense, like if I have clients or something, and they want me to design an outfit, or maybe a capsule collection, or something for them.
Q: Do you have any specialties or things that you're interested in specifically?
A: Plus sizes for sure, because while it has gotten better over the last few years, it's still not quite where it needs to be, especially when it comes to sustainability. When I was looking at different brands that try to be sustainable and ethical. there weren't very many plus-size options. So I wanted to see if there was a way for me to try to combat that, especially through my thesis.
Q: What is your thesis?
A: I chose to do a plus-sized convertible capsule collection. So they kind of look like staple pieces but you can transform them to look different. You can make multiple outfits out of them.
Q: Does that feed into your idea of sustainability?
A: A little bit. Another thing I developed an interest in is minimalism. A lot of it was trying to use more of what I already have versus constantly trying to buy new things. That creates a lot of waste too. It’s just that mindset of quality over quantity and consuming less.
To see more of the designers’ work, visit juliannebur.com and zoejow.wixsite.com/designportfolio.