On Thursday night, in the Freeman hockey rink, students witnessed a video of an emergency occurring. However, rather than a police car or an ambulance that responded, it was the Fashion Victim’s Unit. A student dressed in a green floral-print skirt, blue track vest, scarf and a beaded necklace was aided by several fashion-savvy University students, and later left the scene without assistance.
This video presentation was part of the annual Student of Color Fashion Show, this year entitled “Fashionista Academy,” in which 13 designers displayed themed outfits, and some models displayed a bit more, to Wesleyan students and prefrosh.
Student models were met with the roaring cheers of hundreds as they strutted, danced and skipped down the runway, often performing scenes and skits in the center. This took place to the strains of hip hop and electronic music, under flashing colored lights.
Organizer LaShawn Springer ’08 explained that anyone was welcome to participate in the show, as designers or as models.
“[The show gives] students of color the opportunity to create and design and get stuff viewed as an artistic piece,” Springer said.
Sandra Manzanares ’08, a model in the show for three successive years, also commented on the opportunities the event provides for both participants and viewers.
“It’s really great to get students of color together for events,” she said. “It’s good to have different body types… and to show student talent. There are a lot of great designers.”
Student worked hard over spring break to put together a collection of at least four looks. Jillian White ’08 recounted the long and difficult process of conceiving her collection, and then dying, washing, and sewing fabric in her house to construct it.
“A couple of days before the show, I hated everything [I made],” she said. “I then sat down and refined everything. I ended up liking it.”
The first line, called “Sirènes de la Fête,” was a project created by Mimi Bai ’09 and Shamiso Mtangi ’08. The line was inspired by the sirens in Greek mythology—half-bird, half-women creatures who lured sailors to their deaths. One of the models, barefoot, was dressed in a long, loose grey tunic with gold belt, and adorned with a Pharaonic kohl-painted eye: what Athena would wear on Foss Hill.
Following this came Carla Becerra’s ’10 line, “Je T’aime Paris,” described as a “Parisian love affair with fashion.” Becerra exhibited a confident, intelligent and wearable look in her collection, using lots of red, white and blue, often accented with pink. One of the more dramatic looks featured short white shorts and a black shirt with a large pink Eiffel Tower on the back.
Several designers worked with metallic colors, including Jason Bailey’s ’09 line, “Le Futurism.” It explored draping, using a palette of bronze, silver and plastic whites. The crowd favorite was a well-built male model sporting tight aluminum foil short-shorts and a small black scarf, draped on top. The look was appropriate for tanning beside a quicksilver swimming pool in Gotham City.
White’s collection took spectators out of the future and back to kindergarten. Her look was inspired by “The Cosby Show,” featuring crayon-box colors, bows in the hair, bleached and run fabrics, and plenty of glow-in-the-dark accessories. White’s designs suggested what a kindergartener might wear at an MGMT concert, if such a thing somehow happened.
After intermission and class shout-outs came “Bringing it Forward: My Wes” by Jennifer Matthews ’09 and Latasha Alcindor ’10. The line aimed to “redefine Wes gear.” Among the many looks presented were a football player with two cheerleaders sporting uniforms of orange kente cloth, a material native to Ghana.
A crowd favorite in Stephanie Yarger ’08 and Silvie Deutsch’s ’09 piece “Hurly Burly Egghead,” was a male model wearing tight shorts in hot pink and a hooded plaid cape. Midway through the catwalk, this model removed the cape to reveal a muscular and greased body, eliciting plenty of cheers.
Rashida Richardson’s ’08 line “Derelict Remodified,” featured an unusual choice of materials, including caution tape, plastic shopping bags, and newspapers. The thumping industrial music and flashing green lights suggested that her imaginative outfits might be seen at an evening-party-turned-rave on an abandoned construction site.
Luz Burgos’s ’09 piece “Twisted Ending” featured Disney characters, such as Princess Jasmine from Aladdin, but with a BDSM twist. All of the models carried riding crops or whips, which they cracked as they progressed along the runway.
Finally Tala Bouzarjomehri ’08 ended the show with her line called “Vibrant Thing,” displaying, among other looks, a male model who skipped down the runway in a 1920s green, striped swimsuit with a gold chain. The outfit was popular with the crowd, and would be suitable for swimming in an art deco painting.
Among the other fashion lines at the show were Jessie Samuelson ’09 and Lizzie Collector’s ’09 untitled, understated and sexy line, displayed with Lil’ Kim’s “Put Your Lighters Up” as its soundtrack. Also, “Be fly” by Priya Ghosh ’09 revolved around a theme of tropical birds “to offset gray winter days” in Connecticut. Jamil Alexis ’10 and Harold Flores ’09 designed “a new outlook in circus wear,” featuring a male model dressed as a lion with his female handler, carrying a whip. Khalif Diouf ’11 developed a collection entitled, “Future Tribal Gold Flaveo Tropix! Magik Makers First-World Afroglam!” Surprisingly, the long and elaborate title precisely described the outfits.
This year’s show marked the first time the event was in the hockey rink, a venue that allowed for increased attendance, according to Springer. The new venue allowed organizers to provide prefrosh with a guarded VIP area directly next to the catwalk, while University students sat on the bleachers.
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