USU Fashion show continues to grow
At USU’s third sustainable-fashion show, “Re:VIBE Fashion with a Cause,” the TSC ballroom reached capacity, with attendees lining the walls to view the recycled outfits, modeled and designed by students and some children.
The sustainable fashion show – created by fashion professor Lindsey Shirley – has shown increasing attendance over the past three semesters due to her work and the collaboration of students in her dress and humanities class. The admission fee was one can of food and the entrance table was piled high with chicken noodle soup and tomato sauce. Approximately 1,000 cans were collected and will be donated to the Student Nutrition Access Center (SNAC.) More than 800 people attended Monday’s fashion show, which is more than twice the attendance of the same event one year ago.
“When I was a student at Iowa State University, there was a huge fashion show every year,” Shirley said. “When I was faculty at the University of Idaho we did a recycle redesign fashion show to raise awareness for hunger issues both domestically and internationally. It was a natural fit to do a similar experience with the dress and humanity class at USU.”
This semester’s event showcased outfits that were glued, taped and sewn together and composed of everything from lampshades to Skittles wrappers. Models walked the runway in four categories, depending on the materials that composed their outfit: paper, plastic, trashy and mixed waste. Four awards were given for the unique runway designs, including most innovative, most green, most wearable and best in show. Ashley Miller won in the innovation category while Kelsey Wilson and Rachel Wilkey were awarded for constructing the most green friendly outfit.
Vivian Amundson’s design was selected as the most wearable and the best in show was snatched by Kynzie Thorbe, Rachel Carlisle and Tyra Simmons whose design was titled “Pretty in Paper.”
The panel of judges were composed of USU’s First Lady, Joyce Albrecht, as well as Darrin Brooks, interior design assistant professor , ASUSU Vice President of Service Tasha Jorgensen and public relations student Joshua Rosen.
“I was looking for something you’d see in a fashion magazine, something you could wear that’s durable,” Albrecht said. “We were looking for creativity, design and practicality.”
Rosen said he went to Shirley and suggested the class event go university-wide, so he and other dress and humanities class members set up a committee to jump-start a marketing plan.
“I decided to do it because it’s one of my hobbies and I wanted a forum to display my work,” Rosen said. Shirley said she has learned through her studies how pivotal clothing is in our lives as a way of self expression and necessity. In American culture, fashion is prominent and can be a tool in raising awareness, she said.
“It is important to me to challenge students to think critically about issues impacting their community and to use problem solving skills to take everyday objects and transform them into something that represents them as individuals,” she said.
Melissa Whipple, a junior and American Sign Language major, designed a dress made entirely from grocery bags and collected all of them by asking residents of apartments for donations. Whipple ironed the plastic in some areas and tied bags to the waistband to form a two-tier skirt.
Some students who designed outfits for the fashion show worked long hours and late into the night to finish their outfits. Laura Walker, a senior in graphic design, said she scavenged the TSC recycle bins to accumulate aluminum cans for her dress titled “Cola Chanel,” which was fastened together with brads and sewn in some areas. Walker said through crafting her own garment she did some research and learned some celebrities are wearing sustainable clothing.
Peter Danes, a junior and political science major who attended the fashion show said, “I like that fashion is being brought to the community and Utah doesn’t have as much environmental awareness as other parts of the country, so this definitely promotes awareness because of the number of people here.”
–catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu