Grad fashion show gets a makeover
By Seema Sharma
May 18, 2005 9:00 p.m.
Graduate students now have a huge nighttime on-campus event they
can almost exclusively call their own.
Three years after its inception, the UCLA Anderson
School’s Fashion Show has been transformed into a large-scale
event, complete with a soundstage and designers such as Guess and
Adidas. Yet unlike most campus events, this one is organized by
graduate students, and ticket sales for the event target graduate
students.
“This is an event where undergraduates are actually
discouraged to come, primarily because this year we are serving
wine as part of the package. As organizers of a campus event we
have a responsibility to follow campus code regarding
alcohol,” said Reva Choi, a third-year student in the
Anderson School and director of marketing for the event.
The most notable change is the presence of brand-name designers
and large-chain companies as sponsors in place of local merchants,
who traditionally provided raffle prizes for Anderson students to
model during the fashion show’s first three years.
The focus on graduate students appears in niche companies, such
as Kolobags ““ a local merchant that sells professional
women’s handbags.
“Kolobags as a sponsor is very valuable because the
company gave us $2,000 to help get the event off the ground. This
money was used to get the stage and the lighting that we’re
using this year,” Choi said.
Another notable change is the absence of the
professor-turned-model, which for every previous show was the
highlight.
“Dean Willison is great every year, but the absence of the
professor-turned model won’t take away from the event,”
Choi said.
Although there will be music and food at the event, many of the
participants feel that the entertainment value of the show lies in
seeing the models and the designs.
“Students and professors dance the way they’ve never
danced before and dress the way you’ve never seen them dress
before. It’s hysterical,” said Teri Murray, a
first-year student in Anderson.
The selection process for the show involved a nomination process
as in past years for students in Anderson to be models, and a
contest for “Anderson’s Next Top Model” was held
to narrow a field of 30 nominees down to six.
Seeing graduate students who are normally going through the
rigors of academia dance and model should fit perfectly with this
year’s theme “Culture Shock.”
