After months of planning and preparation, Miami University’s Club of Fashion and Design (MUCFD) held their eighth annual spring fashion show last Saturday night in Millet Hall.
The organization completely transformed the inside of Millet to resemble that of a high fashion show. A red carpet led the stylishly dressed crowd inside, where they could stop and pose for pictures in front of the MUCFD signature backdrop. A white runway was set up on the basketball court, surrounded by rows of white covered chairs. The first few rows of chairs even offered MUCFD goodie bags for the VIP guests. Camera crews were stationed at the end of the runway and around the outskirts of the seats. A white curtained backdrop with white paper flowers illuminated by color changing lights completed the overall effect. I truly felt as though I was at a Mercedes Benz Fashion Week show!
The show began with a few words of introduction from the MUCFD President, Chelsea Hupp, followed by an impressive violin rendition of Ellie Goulding’s “Anything Could Happen,” that effortlessly transitioned into the actual song version put on by the DJ, Allan Friedman. What happened next was 131 looks of pure fashion creativity, totaling 12 collections in all. There were designs that pushed the boundaries with plunging necklines (thank goodness for fashion tape!) and sky-high heels. The looks were stunning and varied from intricately beaded vests and straps on dresses, to a variety of prints and fabrics, and even some men’s clothing. Designer Mike Norgard, who also modeled in the show and is the Creative Director of MUCFD, had a fun collection of graphic tees styled to create edgy looks, while Maggie Durin’s collection featured strategically placed bows on each of her garments, creating a more feminine vibe. I also liked the blue and white raincoat by Maddy Rieman, whose model opened a matching umbrella as she posed for the camera at the end of the runway, eliciting claps from the crowd. Collection 9, designed by Caroline Cliff and Sydnie Rutherford, received some different reactions from the crowd with their hood-like headscarves and looks that I can only describe as bohemian meets city girl-grunge. Also, Michaela Owen, can you please make me a blue jumpsuit like the fabulous one you designed?
The final collection showcased was Design Director Elise Masquelier’s. After seeing her garments walk down the runway, there was no question why this was the finale; her pieces proved how deserving she is of her executive position as Design Director. MUCFD President, Chelsea Hupp, was even modeling one of her looks; a red dress with a nude tulle skirt, decorated with red sequined lips. The dress was inspired by the one from Alice & Olivia’s Valentine’s Day collection and ended up inspiring Masquelier’s entire collection. Each of her 12 pieces represented a different month of the year, with the lips dress being February, obviously.
“I’m kind of a holiday fanatic. I love the different times of the year, so I guess the inspiration was easy!” shared Masquelier.
While some collections may have stood out to me more than others, they were certainly all great. I loved the variety of the show—you could see how each designer’s personal style shone through their designs. Each piece was created by students of MUCFD and modeled by students selected from a model casting call.
Masquelier did sewing and sketching workshops this year to help prepare and educate the designers. “We get designers from beginners to advanced, and anything in between,” said Masquelier. “It’s amazing what people can do by hand,” she added after gushing about the first dress Kritheeka Kalathil had ever made for the show.
The models varied from experienced to first time models as well. Models Carolyn Turner and Lauren McCarroll shared with me that they had been practicing their walks once a week since the original casting call at the beginning of the semester. Closer to the show they had fittings with the designers to ensure everything fit properly. The day of the show each model had their hair done by Aveda Frederic’s Institute team, who also sponsored the show.
To the unknowing guests, the show went off without a hitch. To me, everything seemed organized and as glamorous as a student-run fashion show on a budget can get. But Hupp revealed that this was not always the case; that MUCFD underwent serious planning and organizing in the months leading up to this event, and sometimes had to jump a few hurdles. One of their biggest issues was the delay in getting the date of the event. Hupp explained that the club normally finds out in October or November, but this year it wasn’t until March. “That was very stressful because without the venue you can’t plan anything else,” said Hupp. “Our website went up later than we wanted, we had issues with the box office, there were so many things and that’s why I opened the show saying, ‘with a large production things are not perfect,’ and they’re not. But at the end of the day no one knows that except you.”
Hupp, a Strategic Communications major with a double minor in Marketing and Management, interned at Cosmopolitan over winter break in New York City and was able to apply her fashion knowledge from the experience to her role as President. “You have to be a leader; you have to be able to lead people, and I think I did that and I hope I did that.”
“You don’t really know how much is involved until you do it,” said Hupp. “This is an almost 20,000 dollar production,” Hupp also revealed, saying they get a lot of their money from donors, sponsors, and the school. This year they raised the ticket prices in the hopes of increasing funds for the future. “We’re trying to really run the program and save that money now and build it up and hopefully get scholarships for people in the new [fashion] minor.”
Despite all of the stress involved with planning an event as big as this one, Hupp was happy to see all their ideas come to life. “I think when you come out here and you see it all, and all the people sitting in the rows and it starts and I was out there speaking and I’m like, ‘wow this is real, this is it, this is what we’ve been working for all year’ and I don’t think it could be any better than that.”