“I have just absolutely loved every single minute of it,” said Professor Anne Bernays Trevenen, newly appointed Associate Dean for The School of Fashion, reflecting on her 17 years of being a college professor. Seven of those years have been spent here at Lasell as an Associate Professor of Fashion Design. She will begin her new position at the start of the Spring 2018 semester. Within this timeframe, Professor Trevenen has been a dedicated advocate for students, ensuring they have all the skills and industry experience necessary for their future careers.
Her new position as the Associate Dean comes at an exciting time for Lasell, with the college recently announcing the launch of its five separate schools: the School of Business, School of Communication & the Arts, School of Health Sciences, School of Social Sciences, Humanities, & Education, and the School of Fashion. For Jim Ostrow, Vice President of Academic Affairs, it was clear Professor Trevenen was the strong choice.
Mr. Ostrow said, “Anne is someone who brings a wealth of industry experience: entrepreneurship, right? She's herself an entrepreneur. Also great teaching, and real level headedness. She has an analytical and very logical way of looking at the world, in a way that’s sensitive and appreciative of other people’s perspective. I just thought that blend was the perfect mix for what we need right now.”
Sitting in her small office on the third floor of Donahue, Professor Trevenen, 55, has a passion in her voice when speaking about her role as an educator.
“Every student has something unique,” she said. “They’re looking as hard as I’m looking for that thing, that spark, you know? And it’s very exciting when they tap into something that they’re excited about, especially when it’s unexpected,” said Professor Trevenen.
Senior Juliana Russell, a fashion design major, has taken both Fashion Design Concepts and her internship course with Professor Trevenen, and regards Design Concepts as one of her favorite courses taken at Lasell.
“She taught us how to become pros with Photoshop and Illustrator, which was extremely hard for me at first. She was always available before or after class to help out, which improved my skills in so many ways. I also made my non-textiles dress in that class, which at first was very hard but by the end I was in love. She always encouraged us to look at different aspects of our surroundings as inspirations and as innovations,” said Russell.
For Professor Trevenen, a spark was all she needed to pursue a lifelong career in fashion design. Originally attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst for business, her path completely changed while spending a year abroad in France. It was over there when she decided to transfer to Parsons School of Design in New York City. “I went for the fashion design program there, and I loved it. I stayed and I worked in New York for 15 years,” said Professor Trevenen.
“I loved being in design school, I absolutely loved it, but I really loved working. I think I was better working than I was a student in design… I met a lot of different people and I learned a lot,” she said, her hand movements emphasizing a clear excitement.
It was through working in the industry that she developed an affinity towards menswear, after securing a position at Polo Ralph Lauren. “I was scurrying to learn stuff fast enough, to be useful. Being pushed is not a bad thing,” said Professor Trevenen. After leaving Ralph Lauren, she went on to work for J.Crew and later, Fila.
“The most fun I ever had was doing a startup for Fila. It was a brand called Fila Sport, and it’s now in Kohl's. When I was developing it, the company was still Italian and I was working a lot of the time in Italy in their home office, and then in Hong Kong, they had an office there as well… Every six weeks I was around the world,” said Professor Trevenen.
It was around this time as well when Professor Trevenen married her husband and had her first child. “I also had a baby during that time,” she recalled, laughing. “So that was what prompted me to leave. I loved the people I worked with, I loved the energy of a startup. It’s grueling hours but it’s exciting, it’s fun.” She continued to consult for the company after leaving, working from her home in Topsfield, Massachusetts.
Even after having had three children, Professor Trevenen continued to consult and design for brands, explaining that her work, “Always gave me balance and purpose, because providing for a family makes what you do very real. The only thing that's going to take me away from my family, you know, if I have to work, it has to be something I love. I am not gonna do something just to make money.”
Her love of working in the industry is what propels her teachings, which began when she was contracted as an adjunct professor at The Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Utilizing her years of industry experience, Professor Trevenen began to manage and develop and internship program at Mass Art, to offer students a more well-rounded take on the field of design.
“After talking to the students I realized there was a lot of things that I had encountered in the industry that weren't covered in their curriculum, so I started tucking it into the class, slipping it into the marketing and product development class,” said Professor Trevenen.
Her teaching style is crystal clear: based in practicality, Professor Trevenen wants her students to truly understand what she’s teaching and why it matters, with a clear application to the reality of working in the fashion industry. “It's important to be able to do the task, but you're more motivated after getting a sense of the context,” said Professor Trevenen.
Professor Trevenen critiquing one of her Menswear Design students. Photo by Paris Adams
“She gave us realistic assignments that people in the industry would do, such as creating tech packs, professional flat boards, and mood boards,” said Russell. “She was always somewhat of a perfectionist when it came to these styles of assignments, but it’s what we truly need drilled in our brain. No company is going to look at your mood board if it’s sloppily put together and your flats are incorrect. I am always glad I first learned Photoshop and Illustrator through her.”
It’s clear that she takes her position as a professor and an internship coordinator incredibly serious; a trait of which her colleagues both notice and admire.
“She’s very knowledgeable, very approachable, and she’s willing to share her knowledge, which is really nice because a lot of people aren't.” said Professor Gail Jauregui. “So, as a colleague, she’s very open and forthcoming and giving. And she’s that way with her students too, I’d say. She has a structure to her classes and her teaching but she gives her students freedom within that reign. She makes them responsible for themselves.”
There is an undeniable excitement and buzz within the fashion department now, a direct response to this new change in Lasell’s structure.
“We’re in a unique position, where it doesn't change the configuration of the department or add in new pieces to the department,” said Professor Trevenen. “It gives us a great opportunity to spend more energy on outreach and partnerships with companies that we’ve grown relationships with already… To look critically at these relationships and formalize them, bringing them into coursework or in a more formalized internship program.”
For now, Professor Trevenen likes that many of the changes remain to be seen. She is optimistic about the freedom this gives the department, an excitement she shares with colleague and friend, Professor Jill Carey. “What I’m looking forward to is not just that Professor Trevenen will become the Associate Dean, but that there will be managers also within the layers [of the department]… now you’ve got this force, if you will, trying to go to senior management to advocate for things,” said Professor Carey.
What Professor Trevenen is most excited for is the opportunity to partner and collaborate with the other four schools, saying, “They have more insight, they bring a point of view that's more different, they bring different talents. It's just going to make it more multidimensional.”
Now, she meets weekly with the four other associate deans, exchanging ideas and offering new ways for each department to work together in some way.
“There's opportunities in conversation, and it’s also more fun when you partner… there's huge a value in partnering to achieve a goal,” says Professor Trevenen. She is determined to earn Lasell the deserved recognition for its education, while also doing what is best for the students. Professor Trevenen aims to enhance and hone the department, securing our schools spot on the map.
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