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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

ISO Fashion Gala Features Eclectic Styles

Beneath the layers of bulky winter clothing that they don for most of the year, Middlebury College students know a thing or two about fashion. Their eclectic array of styles was on full display last Friday night, April 29, at an intimate fashion gala hosted by the International Students’ Organization (ISO) at Wilson Hall. Any semblance of homogeneity among the student body seemed to dissolve that evening, replaced by an intense flurry of colors, textures, and patterns reigning from nearly every corner of the world and landing on the brightly lit runway.

Previously, the gala has been a short segment featured in the middle of the fall ISO show. This year, however, the board wanted to throw a longer event dedicated solely to fashion – with the agreement that it would be anything but mainstream.

“We were not looking for a specific type of model or a specific type of clothes,” Danilo Herrera ’18, the producer and MC of the show and the president of ISO, explained. “We allowed [the models] the chance to choose how they wanted to be on the catwalk. We had a basic set up for the runway, and we said to them, ‘Go and shine.’”

The front half of the Wilson Hall auditorium floor was marked off as a makeshift catwalk, with two rows of chairs set up at the edge for cheering spectators. A banquet of food stood in the back half of Wilson Hall, where some audience members gathered around tall tables to eat, drink and observe the show from afar. As the pulsing beats of electronic music filled the air, student models entered from the left side of the hall, posed at the center amid flashing cameras and applause, and followed a semi-circle path to ascend the stairs to the right side of the stage. There, they struck a final pose or two before disappearing through the curtains.

Angel Jin ’18, Mariam Khan ’16, Mika Wysocki ’18, Minori Fryer ’18 and Olena Ostasheva ’16 served as stylists for the twenty or so student models. Meanwhile, Hala Kassem ’19, Maya Woser ’18, Selena Ling ’19 and Weiru Ye ’19 worked alongside Herrera as associate producers of the show. The organizing group decided to veer away from the highly commercialized atmosphere of mainstream fashion shows by featuring an MC. Charming and enthusiastic, Herrera delivered brief remarks between each segment to connect the audience to the collections.

“Fashion design is a recent phenomenon. The first pieces of clothing with a designer’s name were designed only two centuries ago. Fashion, on the other hand, has been around for a lot longer,” Herrera stated in his opening remarks. “And even though fashion has often been restricted by the standards of society which privilege money over social and artistic values, tonight, what you are going to see is a lot different from mainstream fashion shows. No standards, no idealizations, nothing is holding us back. We’re here for the genuine value of fashion.”

In this unconventional gala, the classic runway strut was replaced by a wide array of physical and facial expressions, from sassy to stoic to syrupy sweet. Some models twirled around gracefully, a few blew kisses to the crowd and others stared straight ahead with their hands on their hips, bold and assertive. Ranging in everything from height to hairstyle to ethnicity, Friday night’s lineup was a welcome change from the white, cardboard-cutout congruity of mainstream Western fashion.

Students modelled clothing from their own closets, making each collection a meaningful personal statement. Many had traditional outfits waiting in their wardrobes, a stunning reminder of home that they had simply never had the occasion to wear. Though many of the collections held cultural ties to particular areas of the world – covering a wide section of the Americas, Europe and Asia – the organizers were intentional in not geographically segregating the show.

“Fashion doesn’t have a nationality, except the traditional part. Everyone should feel welcome,” stylist Jin said. “That’s why they chose to have collections based not on their locations, but rather on artistic concepts.”

The show was split into four distinct themes: Red Carpet, Fusion, Spring and Traditions. As Herrera explained, these categorizations were “artistically broad enough to encompass different looks and also give [models] the chance to wear the clothes that they had.” Red Carpet featured formal, elegant outfits, while Fusion works evoked the metropolitan vibes of places like Hong Kong, Barcelona, São Paulo, Tel Aviv and New York. Vibrant colors filled the Spring collections, with Herrera noting that, “whether [spring] is here or not, we still celebrate it.” Finally, Traditions showed off the colors, textures and patterns that characterize cultural rituals all across the globe.

Jin, who styled the Red Carpet looks, acknowledged the power of highlighting aspects of the student body that might normally go unnoticed.

“[The fashion gala] gives people hope that other than NorthFace and Canada Goose, we have some beautiful things on campus that we just never have the chance to put on and show people,” she said. “After an ugly winter where everyone was dressed the same, I think that we seriously need some color, some beauty on campus, however people interpret it.”

Many students wore clothes from their home country, though there was one noticeable exception. In a charming switch-up, Razan Jabari ’18 and Ana Sanchez Chico ’18 – who come from Palestine and Spain, respectively – wore each other’s outfits. Sanchez Chico showed off a festive, black-and-red embroidered dress, while Jabari wrapped herself in white shawl with a matching white fan in her hand and a red flower in her hair. Hand in hand, they walked down the runway together, their colors complementary and their smiles wide.

Proving that even the most polished of shows often take place against a spontaneous backdrop, another fashion duo came together by accident that night. Morgan Ingenthron ’19 and Zahrrah Ahmed ’19 arrived to the venue in unintentionally matching outfits: backwards baseball caps and casual, comfortable clothing. Upon realizing this, they decided to walk the runway together, entertaining the audience with their well-coordinated, back-to-back poses.

In a further defiance of stereotypical fashion show standards, the night featured a few stunning displays of gender nonconformity. Chris Boutelle ’18 drew loud cheers from the crowd with the opening ensemble of the gala: a white button-down shirt, a black bowtie, black suspenders, form-fitting black plants and shining black stilettos. Meanwhile, in another standout performance, Derek Ding ’18 donned a lacy white shirt, a flowing grey skirt and intensely high heels, showcasing an unconventional elegance amid the other Red Carpet collections.


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