Project Runway met history class Saturday night as dozens of student models hit the runway to display the historically inspired clothing collection that made up the Fashion Design Student Association’s “Era-Descent” Fall/Winter Fashion Show.

Each collection in the show was designed and hand sewn by one of the association’s members over a period that began last August and ended just before each model stepped onto the Memorial Hall runway.

“Each outfit took about two weeks to design and about a day to sew together because my mom helped me with that part, so it went a lot faster,” Teresa Tamburello, 21, a junior advertising major from Cartersville, said. “But, it didn’t all get done on time, and I just finished one of the outfits right before they called for all of the models to line up.”

According to Lawrencia Blount, 23, who started the association in Fall 2006 after studying fashion design at Parsons the New School for Design, Tamburello was not the only designer who found hand sewing each garment to be one of the most difficult parts of making their collection.

“You can’t teach someone how to design because they either can or can’t, but a lot of people needed help with how to sew and properly finish the garments, so this year was the first time I did a sewing workshop to help everyone,” the senior business major from Macon said. “The workshops really helped people clean everything up and get it finished.”

But, unlike Project Runway, there was no cash prize. All proceeds from the show benefited the Textile, Merchandising & Interiors Historic Costume Collection.

“Although this is my first year in the design association, I definitely want to do it until I graduate. It was just a lot of fun and gave me the chance to design a collection and show it on a runway,” Tamburello said.