After much preparation, the House of éprouver will open their spinoff project store, Static, today.
“Our mission is to provide an environment for students to enjoy fashion and to get a feel for the industry,” said Mischa Lewis, president of House of éprouver and leader of Project éprouver.
The Project éprouver team has been working consistently for weeks to prepare for the grand opening, which they hope students will anticipate annually. They have collaborated various styles and ideas while working on the store’s opening. Known names like the GAP, Megan La Russa, and Buffalo Wild Wings have also made contributions to Project éprouver for the Static store opening.
“I have big expectations for the store opening because a lot of students will really like the clothes because they’re one of a kind,” Bridgette Jones, a freshman majoring in fashion retail, said.
Jones worked closely on drafting the original concept for the store.
Static will feature pieces redesigned from items purchased at local thrift and consignment stores. The team purchased the clothes then restored them for the store.
“The designers worked really hard on revamping all of the thrift items and we’d love to put a smile on a student’s face when they walk away with something like a one-of-a-kind pair of studded shorts,” Mari Johnson, a senior majoring in visual journalism said. Johnson initially worked as a buyer on the team and later became a designer.
Project éprouver’s goal for the store is to create a welcoming environment for fashions of all types.
“We’re also looking at the fact that the trend we’re deciding to emphasize, which is the hipster trend, is everywhere now,” Lewis said. “Even people who don’t consider themselves hipster have some kind of element of hipster in their clothes without even knowing. And we feel like that trend can appeal to a lot of students now.”
Proceeds from the Static store event will go to Arts n’ Autism, a local camp program which provides services for children and young adults with autism. Initially the team had some difficulty deciding which charity they wanted to support, but they ultimately decided on Arts n’ Autism after it was suggested at a meeting.
“We wanted to give to something that hasn’t really been supported on campus before,” Lewis said.
While the House of éprouver will continue with the pop-up store event annually, the Project éprouver team in charge of it will be different each year. As a result, the store details, atmosphere and featured fashions will vary annually. While the specific charity may differ each year, they will continue to donate to charities that inspire creativity and support the arts.
The project team for Static has been keeping people involved via campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, while maintaining the secrecy of the location until the day before the pop-up event.
The team hosted their showcase event for the store Tuesday and later revealed that the store would open today in Lloyd Hall Room 131 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“We thought it would be more exciting to kind of build that suspense,” Lewis said. “We thought it would be a really cool marketing tool to get people to continue to follow us on Twitter and following our journey. The urgency of it being open for such a short amount of time is going to be ridiculous and exciting, and I can’t wait.”
