AOA Announces
Student Design Competition

The future of the alpaca industry is dependent upon increasing the use of alpaca fleece throughout the world. By encouraging the use of alpaca in clothing design and other products, it increases demand for alpaca fleece, which increases demand for alpacas to produce that fleece.

The use of alpaca in fashion starts with the students. It is imperative that we work to build this interest, desire, and passion in the fashion students of today, who will be the fashion designers of tomorrow. AOA (formerly AOBA) has done this for many years and we are working to further expand the program.

The AOA Fiber and Fiber Products Committee is currently planning the 12th annual student design competition. This program is vital to the future health of our industry, as such; we need all hands on deck for support of this program. In the coming months, we will be asking for financial support to help cover the students’ costs, but at this time we need to gather samples of yarn and fabric so that sample kits can be sent to instructors at the colleges and universities in early January 2015.

We are in need of donations which can include any amounts of yarn or woven, felted, knitted, or crochet fabric as long as it is at least 50% alpaca fiber. Suggestions include:

• leftover yarns from projects, mill end samples, spinoff entry samples
• swatches of those knitting and weaving samples
• leftover swatches from garment production
• whatever comes out of the stash of yarn you have!
• the ugly yarn (Ruth will overdye it)

The students only need a small amount to create an entry board, but with 35 schools and over 200 students, we need a lot of samples with a lot of variety! For the 8th consecutive year, Ruth Fuqua will be coordinating the program. If you would be interested in supporting this important program through donation of materials, please send them to:

Ruth Fuqua
AOA Student Design Competition
7236 Lebanon Road
Mount Juliet, TN 37122