Responsible clothing line available

Over the past six months, Buffalo State has launched School House, its second socially responsible clothing line available to students through the Barnes & Noble bookstore.

The company was launched three years ago by Duke graduate Rachel Weeks after she graduated in 2007 when Duke asked her to design a T-shirt for them, Weeks said.

After she graduated, Weeks said she travelled to Sri Lanka as a Fulbright scholar, with the mission to bring socially responsible clothing to college campuses all over the country.

Weeks said she wanted to create a fashion brand that would bring trends to the college market place because she felt there was nothing trend-right or targeting female college students and their fashion desires.

With the work she has done, School House has grown from one to 100 college campuses and now supports a living wage garment factory in Sri Lanka, Weeks said.

In order to bring the line to Buffalo State, School House had to go through the Barnes & Noble corporate office, said Lynn Puma, manager of Barnes & Noble at the Buffalo State Bookstore.

"The line is selling great, students really like it," Puma said. She added she is impressed by how caring and conscious students are.

Natalie Wills, bookseller at Barnes & Noble at the Buffalo State Bookstore, said she noticed the popularity of the line, which is selling both off the wall and online.

Weeks said she hopes the line goes over well for Buffalo State students because she wishes to expand the collection in the future and would like to bring students in on the design.

"We would absolutely invite the input and collaboration of students, especially knowing that you have a fashion school," Weeks said. "Our designer here at School House loves to work one-on-one with student designers and to do everything from T-shirt design contests to coming up with what our next big product will be."

The School House line is being promoted on the Barnes & Noble website, school and corporate, as well as on the Facebook page and info screens in the bookstore, Puma said.

Weeks said she is very excited to have School House working with Buffalo State College.

"I'm really proud of the collection that we have delivered to you all and I hope students love it," Weeks said.

As far as the future of the School House collection continuing at Buffalo State, Weeks said it depends on the success of the line now. She said the best way to guarantee the line will exist in the future would be for students to purchase from the line today.

"We haven't currently lined anything up yet since the products are still new," Weeks said.

She said she hopes that in the future the line will be able to reach out beyond the campus to the local community.

Eugenia Episcopo, a mechanical engineering technology student, said she really likes the Alta Gracia clothing line and thinks it's cool to have available to students.            

The other clothing line Barnes & Noble at the Buffalo State Bookstore carries is Alta Gracia, based in the Dominican Republic, Puma said.

Jennifer Waters can be reached by email at waters.record@live.com.