Lights down and music up: As retail executives, fashion and accessory designers, interior designers, recruiters, press, friends and family gather for the Academy of Art University School of Fashion’s annual Graduation Fashion Show, students finally see their designs come down the runway after months of hard work. From feeling like life is in slow motion to feeling as if the moment is surreal, students experience what for many began as a childhood dream. “My heart was beating out of my chest,” says BFA Fashion Design student Erika Tompkins. “It was an awesome feeling.”
