For the first time in the Fashion Show’s history, a non-apparel merchandising and design student is a producer for the show.

Hannah Nation, senior in event management and managerial producer for the Fashion Show, decided to step up to the plate and pursue the position for this year’s show despite there never being a non-apparel producer before her.

Nation decided to pursue the position because she wanted to stay involved in the show and to continue to work with the same people she had grown close with in past years.

“When I applied to be a director my junior year, I applied to be a Fashion Week director,” Nation said. “I absolutely loved my co-directors; they were the most amazing people that I could have ever imagined working with.”

Nation said all of the directors came from different backgrounds but worked so well together that it made her want to stay involved and to apply to be a producer to “create that cohesion again.”

Nation grew up in Ogden, Iowa, which is about 30 miles west of Iowa State.  She was drawn to Iowa State because her three older sisters attended the university. She decided to follow in their footsteps.

“I’ve been visiting the campus for about eight years before I decided to attend ISU,” Nation said.  “I basically wanted to finish out the legacy of my sisters.”

Nation came to Iowa State as an open-option major, setting her heart on event management her second semester as a freshman.

“I knew what I didn’t want to do; I just didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Nation said. “I can’t remember what clicked for me but I helped plan events in high school, and I like the [apparel, events and hospitality management] department, and that was the most appealing major within it.”

Nation became interested in getting involved with the Fashion Show after attending the show her freshman year. From there, she was on the design committee her sophomore year, helping behind the scenes.

“I loved being backstage and getting to work with the models and designers and the garments,” Nation said. “It was a really cool perspective, something that I’d never experienced before in any of my classes.”

After being on the design committee, Nation became the Fashion Week director her junior year.  Nation believes all of her positions have worked well together and have helped her as a producer of the show.

“It was really fun to get the perspective of being backstage my sophomore year and then getting to plan actual events my junior year,” Nation said. “Now I get to co-manage all of the teams and all of the events that they are creating.”

Some of her duties as a managerial producer are managing all director teams, solving conflicts and helping run backstage activities. Nation said her job is to solve conflicts, a basic duty that any manager would do in any type of job.

“There is a lot that we have not even faced yet, but basically we are representing the organization, being there for the other directors and helping them and guiding them in their planning process,” Nation said.

For Nation, she said she is thankful to be a part of the Fashion Show because it allows her to get further involved within the apparel, events and hospitality management department and meet other people who she would not meet otherwise.

“It is really cool to see how the majority of [the people involved in the Fashion Show] present themselves, and it is definitely something I want to strive to do and remember to keep doing that for the rest of my life that presentation is very important,” Nation said. “The fact that we can all come together and put on this show just amazes me. While the majority of them are [apparel, merchandising and design] majors, there are a lot of people that aren’t, and that’s what makes our team more well-rounded in the end.”

After college, Nation wants to branch from her Iowa roots and move out of state. Her goal is to travel and leave the country while she is young. Nation hopes for her future career to end up working on large-scale music festivals or stepping out of her comfort zone to work at a venue that hosts a wide variety of events. 

“I definitely don’t think I will be doing an office job or an 8-to-5 job, but I think that whatever I will be doing will entail a lot of long nights, weekends,” Nation said. “One minute a wedding could be held [at a venue] and the next minute a really cool concert or a graduation party and that way whatever I am doing is different every day.”

For more information on Nation, the other producers or the Fashion Show, please visit www.fundisu.foundation.iastate.edu/project/3971.