On Thursday, April 28, approximately 60 people gathered in the Depot and sat in two rows lining a long, black runway. All wearing badges emblazoned by “The Pollak Society,” they picked at fancy finger food and visited the open bar surrounded by twinkling, sparkly lights. They chattered amongst themselves until 7 p.m., when two people took to the podium and introduced the Virginia Commonwealth University Pop-Up Fashion Show.
The third annual show was introduced by Patricia Brown, the new chair of Fashion Merchandising at VCU. She told her audience of how hard the senior design students had worked to produce the collections that were to be shown that night. The actual show is set to happen on Sunday, May 8; but the Pop-Up show was to showcase condensed versions of the most talented students work. The 10 merchandising students who had put together the decorations and set up the event itself took their well-deserved bows, and without further ado the show began.
Courtney Le Whitcomb came out to introduce her collection, which was inspired by her biracial (Vietnamese/Caucasian) background. Influences of zen Buddhism and Daoism made appearances in her pieces, as well as a focus on sustainability, which has always been a huge part of her life. She described her creative process as being “very meditative,” which was shown in her focus on simple shapes and colors.
Maria Fernanda Londono came out next to introduce her collection, which strove to evoke a sense of awe with elegance. She sought to have her pieces reflect 19th and 20th century expression, as well as remind viewers of the movement of tectonic plates and valleys in the earth. The girls of Her Campus VCU decided that everyone needs to know her name, as she is definitely going to be Beyonce’s personal designer one day. Her hand-beaded pieces were truly the most jaw-dropping pieces to walk the runway that night.
Up next was Jennifer Kim, who focused on having fashion conscious, clinical pieces in her collection. She sought to mix dark tones that evoked senses of emotion with feelings of happiness and pleasure, which reflected well in her collection of entirely menswear. She was the only designer in the show who designed menswear, and wanted to challenge herself to devote her entire show to that collection of clothing since VCU Fashion does not offer classes in designing menswear. She wanted readers to know that mesh is the next big thing in men’s fashion, and to plan accordingly.
Last, but certainly not least, was Carlos Ramirez. His collection reflected wearability and fuctionality, as well as the diversity to wear his pieces often and in different circumstances. He, like Whitcomb, had a focus on sustainability in his pieces as well as a concentration on engineering. He wanted his audiences to know that fashion is not a machine, ever; it’s ever changing, so he wanted his pieces to fit in and be adaptable to whatever is “in.”
This whole process took all four designers a year: the fall semester mainly focused on sketching and producing prototypes, while the spring was all about sewing and producing the actual collection. Their phenomenal work is sure to be seen in stores one day–don’t forget their names!