Just two days ago I found myself rushing from class to get to the venue for Adrienne Anderson’s Fashion Show. I was to model for her senior thesis project.
As soon as I arrived to the East Campus Union at 2:30 p.m., I ran into one of Adrienne’s good friends and fellow UNL grad student designers, Kendra Morgan. Kendra, in a hurry, mentioned she was going to run some last minute errands for Adrienne.
When Adrienne saw that I had arrived, her shoulders slumped in relief. She revealed that she had been stressing so much in the past week before the show that she had barely slept at all. She had been continuously working on this project before the semester had even commenced. I was asked to model for her probably 4-5 months ago. This information was not a shock to me, because this runway show was going to determine if she was going to graduate or not.
The photo shoot before the fashion show started at about 3:30 after hair and make-up. Then I waited for about two hours before I had to get dressed again, and get ready to walk. In those two hours I learned more about Adrienne’s inspiration from Antoni Gaudi’s Architecture. I also had the opportunity to chat with the models who were also walking. The waiting around gets to be a little boring, but it is all worth it as soon as the lights dim, and you get to feel the music pumping through your veins. You get this brief rush of adrenaline depending on the amount of people there. It’s hard to explain.
All of the fashion shows I have done have been unpaid thus far, but usually models do get a gift of some kind. This time Adrienne made scarfs that were super soft. Mine is pink, and I love it. But I don’t model for the gifts. I model because I love the feeling that I get on the runway, and I also admire the masterpieces I have the opportunity to wear. Every garment is similar to a Vincent Van Gogh painting because of the amount of creativity and hard work that is involved.