April 16, 2019

Stephens College hosted its annual fashion show and celebrated 75 years of the show’s continuation Saturday, April 13. There were three different showtimes beginning in the afternoon and ending in the evening, each featuring pieces designed by current, past and prospective Stephens students. The show is treated as a collaborative effort between the students in the fashion design and fashion communication departments.

“This is a student designer fashion show,” Maggie Holper, assistant professor of fashion marketing and management, said. “It is entirely student-run from the production team running lights to those dressing models.”

The show began with a student briefly addressing the audience saying how the show was focused on liberation and growth and that each garment was designed to not only empower the individuals wearing them, but impact the world around them. The students spent many hours on each of their garments and were involved with every step of the process: from sketches to sourcing fabrics to the final construction of the piece and its fit on the model.

“It is a lot of hard work, a lot of countless nights of not sleeping, but in the end it is so rewarding to see my pieces and my classmates’ pieces walk down the runway,” student Madeline Buasri said in an email. “It is crazy to think that my hands have touched every aspect of the garment and produced something so great, whereas, before I began Fashion Design, I had no idea where the clothing at the store came from.”

There were 19 collections shown in total. Each was introduced with a projected graphic of the collection name. Some collections had a small multimedia video.

While many were women’s wear collections, there were also multiple children’s collections as well as men’s and unisex looks. As the show went on, something that became evident along with the diversity in the collections was the diversity in the models. Not only were there multiple races represented in the show, but there were different age ranges and size ranges among the models as well.

“At the beginning of each year, there is a modeling audition in which anyone is allowed to come and walk for a panel of judges, and student designers come to watch and write down their favorite choices,” student Abby Burns said in an email. “Modeling is a huge commitment because we meet several times a week for fittings and the show is a huge time commitment for them as well. The show would not be able to happen without them so we are all so grateful.”

_Edited by Janae McKenzie | jmckenzie@themaneater.com_

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