USC Fashion Week 2016: Finale Show

Ivy & Leo finale walk

Last night marked the end to one of our best USC Fashion Weeks yet with a great show, beautiful clothing, talented designers,models, and retailers, and an incredible team making it all happen. The Finale, much like the Student Designer Showcase, had a great turnout with most guests arriving to the venue between 6:30pm and 7:00pm. Guests had a chance to walk around and shop a bit at some of the retail vendors that had a table at the event as well as enter our silent auction. There were products from London and Lace, Monkee's, Handpicked, and Buckle (where I scored some awesome booties). The silent auction was also a big hit with gift bags from  a wide array of local retailers including Mellow Mushroom, Old Chicago, Petal, Village Idiot, Millie's Top Shelf, London and Lace, Monkee's, Pink Sorbet, Bohemian, Glowout Salon, Cantina 76, M Boutique, Steel Garden, and Handpicked.

Silent Auction

Handpicked Merchandise

Buckle Merchandise

Monkee's Merchandise

London and Lace Merchandise

The show was opened by a performance by the Carolina Gents, making every girls' heart flutter of course, and Fashion Board President, Morgan Holton, gave a quick introduction. Then, the retailers sent student-models down the runway in some of their favorite spring and summer looks and each collection was awesome! I know I'm speaking for more than just myself when I say that it has inspired me to go on a major shopping spree. Some of the best pictures of the night can be found below with the full collection at: https://flic.kr/s/aHskwmmQtN (photos courtesy of Eileen Gillis).

Bohemian

Bohemian

Bohemian

 

Entourage

                     

                          Entourage

Entourage

Ivy & Leo

Ivy & Leo

Ivy & Leo

Just The Thing

                        

                         Just The Thing

Just The Thing

Petal

Petal

Petal

Steel Garden

                       

                           Steel Garden

Steel Garden

Vestique

 

 

 Vestique

   

 

Vestique

Wildflower

                         

                          Wildflower

                     

                     Wildflower

Brittons

Brittons

Brittons




And thats a wrap! USC Fashion Week was made possible by Fashion Board and the hard-working Executive Team as well as our Faculty Advisor, Erica Elbery - Thank you! We would also like to thank all of the retailers, designers, models, and hair and makeup artists, and volunteers for helping to make USC Fashion Week 2016 such a great success! Special thanks to The College of HRSM and the Department of Retailing, Paul Mitchell the School, Glowout Salon, Tom Chinn and 701 Whaley, Billy Rockefeller, The Carolina Gents, ACS Sound and Lighting, Party Reflections, all of the retail vendors and silent auction donors. Thank you to to the 2016 Fashion Board Scholarship donors--Bohemian, Brittons, Entourage, Ivy & Leo, Just the Thing, Petal, Steel Garden, Vestique, and Wildflower.

USC Fashion Week 2016: Student Designer Showcase

Tonight was the Student Designer Showcase for USC Fashion Week 2016 and we saw some serious talent. Seven USC students created beautiful, unique collections and got the opportunity to present them to the Columbia area community alongside several student vendors and student artwork. The doors opened at 6pm to 701 Whaley lit by the setting sun displaying the minimally decorated and open space, complete with an adorable table for refreshments.

Guests began to trickle in and by 7pm we had a full house; free admission with a Carolina Card proved to be a great way to bring in more attendees. We had a lovely pianist as well as DJ's for the show, keeping a cool, class, modern atmosphere for the duration of the event. The student vendors we had for the night included "When You Were Dreaming" a collection of beautiful, handmade dream catchers, as well as Caroline Cozzens, a maker of pretty, simple, beaded jewelry that I cannot wait to purchase!

 Once the show got started, models in gorgeous garments began to descend the stairway and get into their places for a live-mannequin format show. Each of the student designers put forward incredibly impressive collections with unique designs and careful tailoring. Novia Green, Sarah Dyer, Lyssie Ropp, Shakira Jackson, Amelia Shuler, Marisa Martin, and Aspen Odle were our lucky seven this year and thanks to their creativity and talent, this show was a sure success.
 

           

                                    

Attendees weighed in on Twitter using the hashtag #USCFW16 to vote on their favorite collection, and the Twitter winner for the showcase was Novia Green! The overall winner of the showcase, as decided by a panel of judges, was Marisa Martin! We would like to extend a huge congratulations to our winners of the night as well as to every designer and model who participated; the level of talent they displayed was very high and each collection was so impressive, especially to us fashion-obsessed who can only dream of possessing such sewing skills.

We would like to thank all of our Fashion Board Members who make this event happen, including Erica Elbery the faculty advisor, the executive team, and Mary Wilbur who took the lead on this project. A special thanks goes out to our panel of judges: Barbara Lecara, Amy Shumaker, Addie Martindale, Lia Marino, and Molly Mcnutt. Also thank you to The college of HRSM and the department of Retailing, Glowout and Paul Mitchell for the hair and makeup on our models, Tom Chinn, 701 Whaley, Billy Rockefeller, Philip Castro, ACS Sound and Lighting, and Party Reflections. Designers, models, student vendors, and artists- we cannot thank you enough for making tonight such a great show!

The bar has been set high, and tomorrow night at 701 Whaley USC Fashion Week 2016 will host its finale show featuring local retailers and vendors. The doors open at 6pm and he show begins at 7pm, again it is $5 for the general public and free with a Carolina Card! We look forward to seeing you there!

Photos courtesy of Eileen Gillis

USC Fashion Week '16: Kickoff & Identi-Tee

E-Board at Kickoff

This morning marked the official start of USC Fashion Week 2016! From eleven to two in the afternoon Fashion Board members held our Kickoff event in Russell House handing out flyers, giving away free goodies, as well as proving some free coffee and snacks to passing students. We got the word out to the campus community and had plenty of interest in the events we have coming up this week. In regards to the free goodies, the koozies were the first to go, followed by the brownies and chocolate chip cookies, naturally.

USCFW Kickoff 2016

Later on tonight Fashion Board hosted a night at the McKissick Museum on the Horseshoe exploring the evolution of the T-shirt and the role that cotton plays in retail's ever-changing supply chains. The Identi-Tee exhibit displays various T-shirts of all sorts of content and cultural background, as well as some of the stories behind them. The exhibit explores the relationship between people and T-shirts and how they play a critical role in the cultural aspects of the fashion and clothing industry. T-shirts are a national staple of wardrobes that express a person's beliefs, affiliations, experiences, and just about anything they want to express or recognize. They often feature logos, group titles, band names, event branding, political affiliations, or just prints for the sake of looking stylish. They have evolved from a labor-class uniform, into an undergarment, into a symbol of rebellion, into an everyday piece of clothing that 70% of men and 54% of women own more than ten of. Speaking from personal experience, as a collector of band and artist T-shirts, I own at least fifteen in just that category. It is no surprise that T-shirts are one of the most widely-owned pieces of clothing, and tonight we got the rundown on how they make if from fiber to consumer in the documentary Cotton Road.

Cotton Road is a documentary about the unusually mysterious process of how clothing evolves from South Carolina cotton into a product of Chinese factories and then back to America for distribution and sale. I'm sure right now if you go to your closet and pick out a random article of clothing and look at the label it will likely say "Made in (insert country in Asia)". This is due to the outsourcing of labor by United States manufacturers to nations like China where the labor and production is far less expensive than the tangles of regulations and wage and conditions standards here in America. Unfortunately, most consumers do not consider this supply chain and who made their clothing under what circumstances which is an issue that deserves attention. The creator of Cotton Road, Laura Kissel, spent years making the documentary and collecting research for her project from workers and their stories in textile factories in China. She came tonight to discuss with the audience after the screening and answered questions about her research. Many audience members were unsettled by the outsourcing of labor to unprotected workers in countries like China. Those looking for work most often find it in the cities with textile factories that do not often keep up with American standards of workplace conditions and employee treatment. These factories, often under contract labor, make these workers work excessively long days with very few days off. These issues that go along with cheap labor abroad are the result of American retailers wanting to sell their clothing for lower prices, so the supply chain has to cut costs. There was a great discussion about companies that are beginning to form to create some kind of supply chain transparency such as sourcemap.com and zady.com. 

An important takeaway from this presentation and Laura Kissel's talk was that in order to combat the unfair treatment of workers in contract labor abroad is to become a more conscious consumer. We should value quality over quantity and steer away from excessive consumption of fast fashion in order to pay a little more for nicer clothes that will last longer and that were produced by a supply chain of fair, clean, transparent workers and companies. 

Fashion Board would like to thank everyone who participated in Kickoff today as well as McKissick Museum and its curators and a special thanks to Laura Kissel for leading such a great discussion of her documentary tonight! Don't forget, tomorrow night in the Russell House Theater will be the USC Fashion Week Symposium! Mila Grigg, CEO of MODA Image & Brand Consulting will be coming to speak on how brand, image, and fashion are pivotal to professional success and progression in all career paths! The doors open at 6:45pm and the event begins at 7pm. Come listen to some great advice for personal and professional development and networking!