Fashionable clothes, electronic music, cupcakes, prizes, and fierce attitude. On Friday, March 21, UFashion held their spring fashion show as part of their first fashion week.
UFashion is a non-profit and student run organization at U of T, all proceeds from the fashion show were donated to the Toronto Humane Society. 'It is a community...for students who like fashion who want to express themselves through their clothes...who feel like here it's more of an academic environment,' explained UFashion's blogger Becca Fleming.
The crowd was able to snack on some delicious cupcakes while they waited for the fashion show to start. After a long wait, the show finally started, showcasing brands from Over the Rainbow, Coal Miner's Daughter, Philistine, and Fresh Collective, to name a few. The runway lineup consisted of models from various body shapes, ethnicities, and genders: 'Our models and our team itself, we are very diverse. We are from very different backgrounds and we work well as a team so I think it kind of represents what U of T is,' said marketing director Rachel Choi.
The intermission was followed by an inspiring speech from guest speaker Leila King, who shared her experience as a person of colour working as a plus size model in the fashion industry.
Then the show continued, showcasing clothes from brands such as Penguin, Promise to Repeat, and Bedo. The finale consisted of the models doing their final walk, breaking away from their serious faces in favour of an attitude that was just simply fun. 'A regular fashion show is usually just a showcase of the brand...but then we [gave] them a chance to have the announcer describe them in terms of personal style so that is how we incorporate[d] the U of T community into our show,' added the co-president Inna Bershtadt. The show was followed by an after party at the The Brunswick House.
Even though the UFashion team had some technical issues during the fashion show, the host was able to make the crowd laugh.
On day three, there was also a clothing swap. For each piece of clothing they brought, participants received one ticket which they could exchange for a new piece they wanted. The event was meant to be student budget friendly, to encourage recycling, and to help raise money for their fundraiser. 'It was a big success, I think, and we got a lot of people coming out and asking us to do them more,' said events assistant Sophie Wolpert.
By organizing a fashion week at the U of T during Toronto Fashion Week, the UFashion team hoped to reach out to people who could not go because of its exclusivity. 'This is more open to everyone where we are actually encouraging like volunteers, or getting people to participate in the fashion week as well,' explained events assistant Zaid Butt. They also wanted to showcase new Toronto boutiques and Canadian fashion to U of T students, reaching out to the community as well as helping students develop their personal styles.
This year, the team went under an almost complete restructuring. 'Last year, all of the members were graduating so they asked me to be the president this year and so I recruited everyone,' said co-president Nancy Yu. Because of that, it added some difficulties for the organization of the fashion week. 'It's kind of a learning experience for all of us, like time managing, contacting all the stores, getting everything done because we realized how many things we did last minute and we learned so much,' explained marketing director Tania Lodi.
In the future, UFashion hopes to expand by increasing their social media presence, holding more events such as clothing swaps or an industry night, and most importantly, getting more students involved and coming out to their events.
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