Steel Plant Fashion Gallery Exhibit “Side Hustle” Highlights Fashion Professors Outside of the Classroom

Pieces from Professor Sonia Roy's collection in the Steel Plant Fashion Gallery, "Side Hustle." Photo by Ciara Molloy '26

On display at the Steel Plant Fashion Gallery this fall is “Side Hustle,” an exploration of what projects and hobbies Marist University fashion professors pursue outside of the classroom. 

The gallery features an array of works that fashion professors have produced in their free time, in addition to displaying other aspects of professors' lives, showcasing what they do beyond the Steel Plant.

Professor and Fashion Gallery Director, Sonia Roy, the brains behind the gallery, came up with the “Side Hustle” concept.

“As a faculty, we joke about how our students don't know what we do outside the Steel Plant. For all of us, this is a second career because we all came from the fashion industry. We teach fashion, we don’t do it anymore, but we all do other things,” said Roy, when asked about how she came up with the theme for the fall gallery.

Roy emphasized that while these interests professors pursue outside the classroom are now considered “side hustles” from their day job, they are more like passion projects and hobbies for professors, as they got their start in the fashion industry, as opposed to teaching.

“Once you’re a maker, you’re a maker,” said Roy. “We all still do work, and what you see there is a representation of the work that keeps professors busy when they’re not in school.” 

Roy has some of her own work on display, including a vintage linen handkerchief with a detailed embroidered hand-stitched into the fabric and a two-dimensional dress made out of remnants of a Victorian lace skirt.

Being able to take the time to do these kinds of side projects eases Roy’s “hectic mind,” as she put it, and doing this kind of intricate embroidery provides a sense of solace.

In addition to Fashion Design professors being part of the exhibit, Roy also made room for Fashion Merchandising faculty to find a home in it as well, even though they might participate in more “untraditional” side hustles that don’t focus on creative processes.

Professor Stephanie Conover attends concerts with her husband, which she deems as her “side hustle.”

“For me, going to concerts has been an integral part of my relationship with my husband. We met in July of 2006, I think we went to our first concert later that summer, and that’s literally what we do,” said Conover.

Conover explained that she and her husband have attended over 300 concerts together, and were averaging one concert per month before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. She also stated that her kids have now become part of the experience, and they have begun attending concerts with her and her husband.

Conover also highlighted that the collecting of concert merchandise adds to her side hustle endeavors and is almost as important as going to shows.

In the gallery, a rack showcasing just a handful of the concert t-shirts Conover and her husband have collected over the years is on display, along with a poster from a My Morning Jacket show at the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater in Colorado.

“It’s our hobby, especially when it comes to collecting the posters; it’s like collecting art. I know most people are like ‘Oh, it’s a poster,’ but these are all hand-drawn and screenprinted. As we’ve collected them over the years, some of them have really increased in value,” said Conover.

The gallery serves a bigger purpose than just highlighting the work of professors; there is also a beneficial gain for students who attend the exhibit as well.

Roy, who specializes in working with textiles, is able to demonstrate to her students that the possibilities are endless in working with different types of unconventional materials, as she has a plethora of versatile works in the gallery.

“In some ways, what I do is pretty applicable because it’s embroidery and it involves using a lot of hand techniques that maybe are a little different than what students are used to,” said Roy.

For Conover, she has been able to incorporate her side hustle into the classroom where she teaches a First Year Seminar (FYS) course called “Rockin’ the Look: The Synergies Between Fashion and Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

“My whole FYS course is basically my side hustle. My FYS is all about fashion and rock and roll and how they’ve influenced each other. I wouldn’t be teaching a class like that as part of the fashion curriculum. It’s really allowed me to blend those two passions of mine,” said Conover.

Conover’s fashion merchandising background and her live music side hustle allow students to explore new facets of fashion, examining how the relationship between music and fashion is intertwined in ways they may not have thought.

Conover’s collection of concert memorabilia in the gallery shows students how their interests can still exist as something that defines them in the workplace and can even provide unique opportunities like the one Professor Conover has with her FYS. 

“Side Hustle” is effective in showcasing a side of fashion professors that students would not normally see outside of Marist, while also proving to students that they should think outside of the box and pursue things they are passionate about and not confine themselves to one area of their lives.

“It’s about opening people’s minds to what’s possible," said Roy. “You can hand five people the same materials and they’re going to come up with five different ways of using those materials, and that’s one of the things we wanted to show.”