By Carolina Reis do Nascimento, news correspondent
Northeastern’s Fashion and Retail Society, or F&RS, will present their annual student fashion show Friday in the Curry Student Center Indoor Quad. The theme for this year is “Battle of The Wild Ones,” inspired by the historical fashion of British mods and rockers.
There is a waitlist for attendance, given their limited 150 tickets are sold out. F&RS President Kaan Donmez explained that the theme for the show originated in 1960s Great Britain, when the mods and rockers youth subcultures challenged authorities and clashed one another through art. While the mods had a preppy look, Donmez said, rockers’ fashion was edgy and rockstar-like.
“The youth took the opportunity to express their feelings through their ways of fashion,” said Donmez, a fifth-year business administration major. “We were inspired to see how currently millennials are representing themselves through fashion in different ways. There is an ecosystem where millennials are going against societal norms and fashion is one of those ways of expressing ourselves.”
F&RS Vice President Essence Asamoah, a fourth-year communication studies major, said she suggested the historical theme during an early group brainstorming session in the fall.
“It was a very rebellious time and I think that now, in 2018, we see that more than ever with youth and fashion culture,” Asamoah said, “so [the show] is a spin-off of that.”
Asamoah and Donmez said the club has been working on the event since September. They assembled subcommittees for tasks such as makeup production, marketing, event management and styling.
“Because this year our theme was very specific, we created a styling team who took initiative in terms of creating the individual looks for the show,” Donmez said. It was up to the team whether to borrow clothes from a store or create looks by working with student designers, he said.
Coco Yang, a second-year pharmacy major and member in the makeup committee, is preparing for what is expected to be a busy event Friday.
“As a makeup committee, we put in ideas and decided on a lookbook for each of the two main styles,” Yang said. “We will ask whoever comes in to take a seat and if they are a mod or a rocker, we will do their makeup accordingly.”
The F&RS leaders held a model casting session for Northeastern students Feb. 1. About 20 of the 50 candidates were recruited. Donmez, who has been the creative director for F&RS for two years, wanted models to be exclusively from the Northeastern student body.
VIP members of the audience will include Frances McSherry, a theatre design professor and F&RS faculty advisor, and representatives of the event’s sponsors, such as Aveda, Kiehl’s and Sugarfina. Outside brands featured in the show include Balenciaga, Calvin Klein, Comme des Garçons, Madewell, Saint Laurent and Zara.
The show setup in Curry is intentional and innovative, resembling the production of professional events. There will not be a traditional runway stage, and models will instead showcase looks through a more informal approach.
“The bleachers in the indoor quad will help it look like one of those New York Fashion Weeks we always see,” Donmez said. “The audience will be more within the show. We wanted that cozier and closer feeling.”
The event is a means of self-promotion for the F&RS. The club sends its weekly email newsletter to more than 1,000 people and nearly 70 students are involved in the production of the show, with newcomers reaching out every week. The fashion show is an opportunity to expand the society’s reach and raise awareness about fashion involvement on campus.
“We have some amazing student designers who are going to be at our show who no one knew before,” Asamoah said. “It’s a great way for people to start: with us.”
Asamoah will be taking over the Northeastern University’s Snapchat account all day Friday, showing the event from backstage. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m.
Correction: An update was made on March 30 at 9:28 a.m. to correct a quote identification for Donmez.
