Loyola's Annual Fashion Show Does Not Disappoint
The Black Students Association Fashion Show held on March 26th at Loyola University’s Reitz Arena proved to be a success. Audience members cheered loudly for their friends in the show all night from the nearly filled bleachers in Reitz. Complete with A Cool Stick performing during the whole show, a poetry reading, and a performance by the Loyola University dance company, the fashion show proved to be diverse as well as stylish.
The show was divided into four acts with one intermission between act two and act three. The first act featured clothes from Ransom’s Boutique, Holly G Boutique, Whimsy, Next Level, and Ande & Amarley. “Ransom's Boutique’s prom dresses were really nice,” said senior Ashley Hall, one of the models who wore various colorful gowns through this act. “I might consider buying a dress from there if I had another prom to go to.”
This scene was entitled “Street Symphony,” because all of the clothing in the scene mirrored everyday styles. Scenes one and two in the second act were called “Phenomenal Woman” and “Empowerment,” respectively. The president of the Black Students Association at Johns Hopkins University read a poem to begin scene one called “Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou.
These two scenes featured clothes for plus-size women from K Staton Boutique, Forever 21, and Faith 21, an outlet of Forever 21 that sells only plus-sized clothing. “I loved that the show included this type of clothing,” said audience member sophomore Ericka Kirk. “Fashion shows are always showing stick thin models strutting down the runway, but these clothes show you don’t have to look like that to be beautiful or stylish.”
The third act began with a performance by Loyola University’s dance company. They performed a dance from the play Chicago called “Cell Block Tango,” which was also the title of the first scene in this act. The tattered clothing the dance company wore during their performance was similar to the shabby yet chic attire worn by the models. “Cell Block Tango” and the next scene “Alter Ego” featured designers H of Hs and Emore J Couture. The final scene in the final act was called “Sweet Disposition” and featured designers Cloud 9, A People United, and SquidFire.
“I decided to direct the fashion show, because I had the ambition for Loyola’s show to set standards and show our neighboring schools that we can bring it,” said senior Marjorie Thousand, director of the fashion show. Thousand interned for DC Fashion Week and Baltimore’s fashion week before organizing the BSA show so that she could observe how professional shows work.
“As a student, I had to plan and implement an entire event on my own: including finding models, volunteers, designers, writing sponsorship letters, making phone calls, advertising and much more,” reflects Thousand on her efforts in this fashion show’s production. “Directing this show gave me an experience I could not have gained anywhere else."
Each scene’s models and scene assistants were recognized at the end of the show, and directors Ashley Williams and Marjorie Thousand gave a short speech expressing their appreciation for the show’s volunteers and viewers. At the bottom is an original photo of the scene assistants and models in "Street Symphony."
