At the new Florida Tech Center for Textiles named in her honor, Ruth Funk stands surrounded by an army of elegance, a couture corps of mannequins silently making exquisite fashion statements.

Ruth’s army is clothed in the colorful, elegant coats of her own design, the nucleus of “Coat Couture,” the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts’ opening exhibition.

The textile arts center, neighboring Florida Tech’s Evans Library, opened in August of 2009 to add a liberal dash of artistic spice to the technical university.

“The much-anticipated center enriches the university’s humanities programs in ways we never dared dream,” says Florida Tech President Dr. Anthony J. Catanese.

With 3,000-square-feet of exhibition space, plus 2,500 more for collections storage, the center is indeed a jewel in Florida Tech’s crown. It is one of a handful in the nation, and the only center in Florida devoted to showcasing textiles and their place in world culture.

The dynamo behind the center’s birth is Funk, artist, designer, teacher, collector, author and philanthropist. Although well into her ninth decade, Ruth radiates the exuberance of youth.

“Forget octogenarian; think paragon. Ruth Funk, creator and collector, stitches with one hand while shaking the world with the other,” noted world renowned textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen in his foreword to “Cloth and Culture,” Funk’s new, and intoxicatingly handsome, book about her unique couture creations.

August of 2009 was a memorable month for Ruth, for in that month not only did the textiles center open, but her coffee table book hit the shelves. The book mesmerizes readers with a journey through 25 years of Funk’s brilliant handcrafted garments and fiber art.

This 280-page, 400-color-image love poem to textile arts features the highly detailed jackets, evening coats and jewelry that Ruth handcrafted from rare and recycled textiles she discovered in her travels and forays into antique and interior design shops.

“Every garment tells a story” is Ruth’s working mantra, one that is repeated in all of her creations.

Like her wearable designs, Ruth’s life has been a mixture of serendipity combined with judicious choices.

As a child growing up in Texas, she would sew clothes for her dolls, but as an adult, her passion for textiles remained dormant as Ruth pursued several careers.

“I didn’t have time to sew, but I was always conscious of fabric,” she says.

After earning her master’s in fine arts from Texas Woman’s University, she opted for an extra year of studies at Milwaukee- Downer College in order to become a registered occupational therapist.

“This profession gave me an excellent exposure to many of the handcrafts and discovery of how things are made,” explains Ruth in the catalog for her “Fashion, Fun and Fantasy,” an exhibition of her work at the Maitland Art Center.

A large chunk of her adult life was spent in New York City, with travels throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. During a summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Ruth studied with abstract expressionist Hans Hoffman. Another summer, she was off to Nantucket to study silk-screen and block printing on fabrics.

During the 1960s, Ruth concentrated on jewelry design. Her acumen with silver served her later in life, when she designed jewelry to coordinate with her textile art.

For three years, Ruth was the director of education at the Albany Institute of History and Art and part owner of Albany’s 327, a contemporary art gallery. At Russell Sage College in upstate New York, she taught in the fine arts department and was director of the school’s interior design program.

It was only after retirement in Florida, however, that Ruth finally reconnected with her childhood passion for cloth.

“I came to Florida dragging my feet,” says Ruth.

“My husband was a golfer. I told him that anywhere we moved would have to have an art museum and a symphony.”

In Brevard, she found the cultural camaraderie she craved, as well as the time to start sewing again. There was never a grand master plan. Art happened.

“I just started putting things together,” says Ruth. Friends at Brevard Art Museum took notice.

“As I started making more clothes, friends started asking me to do fashion shows,” says Ruth.

As canvas, Ruth primarily relies on the square-cut loose-fitting pattern of kimono legend and on the ingeniously simple Othello coat pattern.

From these basic shapes, she begins to sculpt in cloth, using as a guide the intuition she has honed through decades of design experience.

“You have to make it go together, whether it’s a coat or a room,” says Ruth.

“Each piece has its own life.” Textiles’ tactile quality serves as springboard for the designs.

“Your first response to textiles is that you want to touch them,” says Ruth. “I usually start a piece because I love a particular fabric.”

In a thrift shop, Ruth happened upon a delicious pink and black Thai silk dress. Despite the fact that the dress was priced at just three dollars, Ruth knew there was plenty of pedigree in the silk. The fabric had been designed by Jim Thompson, who singlehandedly revived the silk cottage industry.

Ruth “recycled” the beautiful fabric into a jacket, embellishing it with ribbons, rosettes and beads and even the “frogs” from the original dress.

For her “William Morris” jacket, Ruth began with a set of postcards a friend brought as souvenir from the Victoria & Albert Museum. Eager to pay homage to the great 19th century designer, Ruth embarked on a fanciful coat that would incorporate the patterns on the cards.

“At the time, you couldn’t get any William Morris fabric, so I had to transfer them all onto cloth,” she says. “I worked all summer just transferring.” The thoroughly British patterns, outlined quilt-style by a “trellis” of blue, are enhanced by vines of rattail, the polyester braiding popular in the 80s and 90s, and a burst of silk leaves given to her by the late Barbara Ann Barber, a Melbourne interior designer. Hundreds of French knots are the tiny English flowers that spill across the cloth.

“It makes for a unifying statement,” says Ruth.

A scrap of fabric can spark a dramatic design. African mud cloth, upholstery fabric, Chinese silks, Belgian lace and Ikat fabric are embellished with shells, coins, earrings or any other object Ruth feels blend in harmony. Friends such as stained-glass artist Vera Sattler, who provided the glass drops for one of the coats, keep Ruth well-supplied with a myriad of baubles.

“I’m not a purist,” she says. “I put together anything that works.”

After attending Florida Tech’s “Dreamweavers” textiles exhibit in 2003, Ruth became interested in donating her collection of textiles, books and journals to the school, together with a gift of $1.25 million to house the collection.

“It is my dream come true to have a center for world textile education and special exhibitions,” says Ruth.

“My vision is to elevate textiles as an art form to be enjoyed and appreciated for generations to come.”

The Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts’ collection includes handmade textiles, garments and accessories from Africa, Central Asia, China, India, Japan and the Americas.

Rotating exhibitions focus on the collection’s artistic, technical and cultural significance.

The Center is open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Saturdays. Admission is free. For more information, call 674-8313 or visit http://textiles.fit.edu.

“Cloth and Culture” is available at the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts and at bookstores everywhere.