Fashion Designer Charles Harbison ’03 Launches Collection – Park Scholarships

The next time you find yourself paging through a fashion magazine – or if you happen to be in New York City for Fashion Week – keep your eyes open for the work of Charles Harbison ’03, who recently launched his Fall/Winter 2013 debut collection. Harbison entered NC State with intentions of designing buildings, not clothing; he began his academic career as an architecture major. While he’d dabbled in mediums such as painting, sculpture, and fabric manipulation during high school, it was during a first-year Design Fundamentals course that Harbison discovered how much he enjoyed applying his creative energy to these arts. “I wanted more of that in my life and studies,” he said, “but didn’t want to abandon my love of math and science that led me to architecture.” Harbison was able to reconcile his right- and left-brain interests through NC State’s then newly-established Anni Albers Scholars Program, which offers a dual major in design and textile technology. While Harbison described his studio time as “priceless,” he said the most inspirational experience of his academic career at NC State was when he and several other students collaborated to present a fashion show featuring their work. This experiment evolved into what is now known as Art 2 Wear, an annual student fashion show and highly anticipated campus tradition.