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For Fashion Prof Style is Skin Deep, and More
by Caitlin Daly
Kathryn Eason
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It's not often you come across a professor with a master's degree and a Ph.D. who has three tattoos and five piercings, including a tongue ring. You might assume that someone with such body modifications would not be found teaching at a school like Mars Hill College, but you would be wrong.
Assistant Professor Kathryn Eason is the newest face in the Fashion and Interior Merchandising department.
Eason has five piercings and three tattoos and even wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on body modification -- i.e. tattooing and piercing -- of women.
She teaches Decorative and Wearable Arts, Apparel Design Applications, and Principles of Marketing.
A Celtic triple knot
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Eason was originally from Rockville, Maryland, on the outskirts of Washington D.C., but she went to high school in Concord, N.C. She attended Peace College in Raleigh, N.C. for two years but wasn't sure what she wanted to do and kept switching her major - from psychology to English to history.
She came across fashion while studying business administration at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in Concord. She was working full time managing a clothing store, which opened her eyes to the world of fashion merchandising. She had always been a tomboy and didn't care about clothes. It was the visual merchandising aspect of fashion that really caught her eye.
After that, she attended East Carolina University in Greenville, and in 2002 graduated with a B.S. in Apparel Merchandising. She earned a master's degree in Textile Marketing in 2005 and a Ph.D. in Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Studies in 2007 at the University of North Carolina-Greensborough.
It was the social psychology aspect of fashion that she really fell in love with. What is it that possesses us to wear what we wear? Eason believes the answer is: clothes are first and foremost a form of communication, and then a form of beautification.
She uses the example of going to a Halloween party in a costume. "If you were to show up in that same costume in your 10 a.m. class, the interpretation of the garment might be very different, especially depending on what your costume is!" Eason explained.
This fascination with the psychological aspect of adornment inspired her dissertation on body modification.
Each of her own three tattoos has a significant meaning. The Celtic triple knot, located on her left calf, symbolizes the Holy Trinity and the "interconnectedness of life."
Tudor rose
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Located on her lower back, the Tudor rose's white and red petals symbolize the resolution of conflict between the House of York, symbolized by the white, and the House of Lancaster, symbolized by the red. Eason chose this symbol of "unity out of struggle" because of her love of Shakespeare, in particular Richard III.
Her last tattoo is located on her left arm. "The theory grounding my research came from an article called 'The Laugh of the Medusa,' so I got a smiling pin-up style Medusa to commemorate the experience and celebrate finishing graduate school," Eason said. "Right now it only covers about half of my upper arm. I'm hoping to continue working on it and extend it into a half or three quarter sleeve."
Her piercings include two sets of earrings and a tongue ring. She has had five additional piercings that she had to take out. Her favorite is her tongue ring. It was her first. She's had it for ten years.
Laughing Medusa on Eason's arm
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Eason began knitting eleven years ago to help herself relax and stop fidgeting so much. She brings her knitting material almost everywhere with her, and her family only purchases purses for her large enough to carry her knitting material.
Medusa logo of the design house of Versace. In Greek myth Medusa's hair was turned to snakes when she boasted that it was more beautiful than a godess's hair. Her look would turn a man to stone.
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What first drew Eason to Mars Hill College was the small school setting. "At small schools," she says, "the focus is on teaching." She was unaware that a small school could have such a diverse curriculum, ranging from fashion to athletic training.
Eason says the Liberal Arts in Action (LAA) program "fascinates" her. She believes a liberal arts education is important. "If you love to learn, well, then you can take the basics, and with those skills continue to learn throughout your lifetime."
It took Eason five majors, two colleges, and one community college to land on fashion. The one constant thing was teaching. Eason says it's the interaction between student and teacher that is the most rewarding part of teaching.
It is apparel that Eason is most passionate about. "It's so pervasive," Eason says. "It's everywhere all the time-you never think about it."
As a professor, she loves the idea of sharing her passion with others. "I want students to find what they are truly passionate about in the field and to explore it!"
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