Mount Mary University’s 2023 fashion show organized by just 6 students
Nicknamed the ‘Super Six,’ they’re responsible for putting on Mount Mary’s annual fashion show. This year, they’re not staying behind the scenes.
Tom Gifford Video, Tom Gifford Video
- Sister Aloyse Hessburg, a School Sister of Notre Dame, launched the first four-year fashion design degree program in the United States at Mount Mary University in 1965.
- Hessburg, who passed away recently at 93, played a pivotal role in establishing Mount Mary’s esteemed fashion program, its historic fashion archive and the annual student fashion show.
- Her influence extended beyond academia, as she designed a dress for a White House wedding and received the prestigious Gimbels Fashion Forum Award in 1975.
When people hear “Mount Mary University,” its fashion design degree program is often one of the first things to come to mind, said alumna and designer Donna Ricco.
“We call it the ‘football team of the university'” because of its popularity and draw, said Ricco, an executive fellow in Mount Mary’s fashion program.
Today, fashion design and fashion business are among Mount Mary’s most popular majors. Ricco and others attribute that, in large part, to the efforts of one pioneering nun, educator and designer: Sister Aloyse.
Sister Aloyse Hessburg of the School Sisters of Notre Dame debuted the country’s first four-year fashion design degree program at Mount Mary in 1965. After spending the last few years in memory care at a Greenfield convent, Hessburg died March 2 at 93. She was a professor at Mount Mary until 2008 and remained involved with the university in the following years.
Over a decades-long career, Hessburg’s accomplishments ranged from building an extensive historic fashion archive at Mount Mary to designing a dress for a White House wedding to founding the annual student fashion show, which continues today.
“It was unusual for a School Sister of Notre Dame to be running a fashion department,” Ricco said. “If you look at some of those images of her in action, she’s in her habit at runway shows in New York and when helping students with fittings.”
Descriptions from former students and Mount Mary fashion faculty paint Hessburg as a caring and talented instructor who was deeply connected in the industry and challenged her students with strict standards.
The sister taught herself intricate couture sewing techniques like hand-sewing, detailing and construction so she could better instruct her students, Ricco said. She often encouraged students to take apart garments “over and over and over again” before they were deemed acceptable to turn in, added Ashley Brooks, Mount Mary division chair of art and design.
“She was a real stickler for perfection. I mean, that’s what couture sewing is all about. There was no ‘slap it together’ and turn it in with Sister Aloyse …,” Brooks said. “She was a very serious, imposing presence, but she had this dry wit. The way that she worded things, it’s so brilliant and very entertaining.”
Sister Aloyse founded the nation’s first four-year fashion degree
Hessburg was born in Minneapolis and attended Mount Mary for a year in 1949 before joining the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She professed vows in Milwaukee in 1953.
After teaching at primary and secondary schools in Beaver Dam, Milwaukee, Appleton and Chicago, Hessburg returned to Mount Mary in 1961 to earn a degree in home economics. Throughout her teaching career, she took Saturday and summer classes in art and textiles. In 1963, Hessburg was assigned to be a clothing and textiles instructor at Mount Mary, which prompted her to earn a master’s degree in textiles from Drexel University.
Retired Milwaukee Journal women’s editor Aileen Ryan and others encouraged Mount Mary to start a four-year fashion program to complement the numerous fashion industry opportunities in Milwaukee at the time, Ricco said. The program would combine a liberal arts education with the fashion training that was then only available in associate’s degree programs, Mount Mary Fashion Archive curator Amanda Cacich said. Hessburg was appointed to lead the program and develop its curriculum.
The program started small, with four students in its first graduating class in 1969. In 1968, Hessburg organized the first student fashion show, which featured five designers and 10 pieces. But, despite its humble beginnings, the fashion program represented something new for Mount Mary.
“When Mount Mary started, it was the School Sisters’ idea to educate women and prepare them for careers as teachers, therapists and social workers. So, fashion was sort of odd to throw in there,” Brooks said. “But, I think it was really visionary for them to recognize that the industry meant so much to this area and absolutely needed qualified and talented people to work in it.
“What an opportunity it was for so many women who didn’t want to be a teacher or a therapist or a nurse.
Over time, Hessburg nurtured the program’s growth with help from her extensive network. The sister seemed to know all of Milwaukee’s most influential women and had many friends in the New York fashion world, like designers Charles Kleibacker and Ronald Amey, Ricco said. Hessburg’s connections made it possible for students to visit runways in New York and Paris and learn from industry leaders on and off campus.
Designers and companies in Hessburg’s circle also helped provide commentary and support for the fashion show. Today, the show is organized by Mount Mary’s fashion business students and attracts over 1,000 people every year, Brooks said.
“Sister Aloyse was an incredible leader and opened up our eyes to all kinds of things …,” Ricco said. “It was and still is a really impressive program. To be located in Milwaukee, I know it’s given lots of students opportunities that they wouldn’t have had.”
With Kleibacker’s encouragement, Hessburg also started Mount Mary’s Fashion Archive, a collection of now over 10,000 garments and accessories for students to use for study, research and inspiration.
Like the fashion program, the archive developed slowly at first, growing with donations from sisters and other local people, Cacich said. Today, it represents many “significant ties to Milwaukee history,” as well as fashion in general, “running the gamut from high-end designer couture items to everyday items.”
“Sister Aloyse’s personality was really helpful in getting these items,” Cacich said. “I think a lot of designers or donors were happy to give her things because they knew she really cared about them, was passionate and would take care of it.”
Sister Aloyse’s accomplishments include designing a dress for a White House wedding
In addition to teaching thousands of students, Hessburg was an accomplished designer in her own right. In 1967, she designed, made and fitted the mother-of-the-groom dress worn by Frances Howard Robb when Robb’s son, Charles, married President Lyndon B. Johnson’s daughter, Lynda Bird, at the White House.
The design process was quiet and “undercover,” Cacich said. Robb would visit Hessburg “after hours” for fittings. Today, the dress and Hessburg’s original sketch are in the Mount Mary archive.
In 1975, Hessburg received the Gimbels Fashion Forum Award. The award was “given annually to ‘the Wisconsinite who has made the most distinguished contribution to the world of business, community leadership and fashion,'” according to the Mount Mary website.
In earning the award, Hessburg joined the ranks of Hildegarde, Lynn Fontanne, Florence Eiseman, Peg Bradley and other big names in fashion, Cacich said. “People were thrilled for her. It was a very big honor.”
A press release about the award praised Hessburg’s “knack for uncovering talent” in her students and her “personal integrity to good taste and fine fashion, and … the priceless gift of fashion imagination she instills in her students.”
In 2013, Hessburg was honored with Mount Mary’s Gold Needle Award for her 50 years of dedication to the university fashion design program.
