It takes more time to organize a fashion show from the ground up than it does to study live rats in a diabetes lab for 10 months. Yeani Kwon knows this from personal experience.
In late 2023, at the age of 21, Kwon, a then fourth-year biology major, started to juggle a not-so-secret double life: pre-med student by day, president of Northeastern’s Fashion Society by night, allowing her to pursue an academic dream without neglecting her affection for fashion.
For just under a decade, The Fashion Society, or TFS, has hosted an annual student-led runway show. The show, previously held in Curry Student Center, was assembled by a group of passionate stylists and student models. When Kwon stepped into her position as president of the TFS’s editorial board in September 2023, things were set to change.
Kwon’s real interest in fashion began during her first two years at Northeastern, when she found herself longing for a creative release. At the time, she was scrambling in a world hindered by COVID-19. Amid the chaos, she looked for a way to destress. Outside of labs and biology exams, she began watching grainy old videos of runway shows from designers like Thierry Mugler. She loved the theatricality of it all: how the models walked with such big personalities in extravagant designs.
Born in Queens, New York, Kwon grew up a shy only child of hard-working parents who immigrated from Korea in 2000. In high school, she said she rarely spoke and often sat in the back of the classroom.
“[I was] so scared of people and so anxiety-ridden,” Kwon said. “And college was really where I could let that go. So my medium was clothing.”
As she began to adapt to college life, eventually changing her major from biology to health sciences and communications, fashion became a way for Kwon to express her identity at a largely STEM-based institution. Kwon said she quickly began to embody a new personal motto: “Fake it till you make it” which became especially important in the second semester of her second year.
TFS had begun planning its annual fashion show and was looking for a model lead, a person who directs the runway walks and shapes their creative vision. Kwon had no experience in runway, but she knew some fashion history, so she decided to go for it.
“Something in me just really loved the idea [of] that role. So, I applied and they, for some reason, accepted me,” Kwon said. “But I took it really seriously.”
In just a year and a half, she climbed the ranks of TFS to vice president, all the while keeping up with her studies, where she was also making strides. During her time at Northeastern, Kwon worked with live rats at the Ferris Diabetes Lab on campus. The research she assisted with was published in Frontiers in Radiology Feb. 12. After her research concluded, she completed her first co-op in late 2022 at the New England Baptist Hospital as an Operating Room attendant.
Kwon was juggling a lot, but as she looked around at other members of TFS, she realized she wasn’t the only one.
“The people who were in it were not fashion majors. We don’t even have a fashion major or [fashion] design — they were studying to become lawyers and engineers and tech people,” Kwon said. “I felt kind of out of place until I realized it’s such a common language that we all share.”
In her fourth year, Kwon became president of TFS. When she accepted the role, she wanted to create something worthy of the group’s shared interest. She scrapped almost everything and started the whole show from scratch.
In those months of work and planning, Kwon created a brand for herself that was starkly opposite from the high school girl who sat in the back of the class.
Anthony Peters, a recent Northeastern graduate, last year’s director of operations at TFS and Kwon’s boyfriend, said fashion has always brought out Kwon’s outgoing side. Leadership seemed like a characteristic she embodied.
“It may have taken her time to build up the courage and confidence,” Peters said. “But I think that the qualities that she shows as a leader, I think that’s something that’s innate.”
In her year as president, Kwon was occasionally perceived as intimidating and hard to read or, at the very least, private. But those who worked closely with her said her intensity was a product of her passion, a balance Kwon was often aware of during her leadership.
Angelica Miller, a third-year business administration major and the current president of TFS who took over from Kwon, said Kwon had a knack for executing the ideas that made the show a reality.
“Yeani is such a creative genius,” Miller said. “I’m always hearing about her from our e-board members now, ‘Oh, my God, Yeani’s so cool.’ One girl was like, ‘She’s such a girl boss.’”
On April 5, after roughly six months of planning, working nearly everyday, the show and Kwon’s vision was finally ready for display. Unlike years before, Kwon had organized for the show to be hosted at Royale, a nightclub in the Theater District.
Many hours before the show was set to begin, Kwon was at the venue cleaning, setting up, writing VIP letters, brainstorming a speech and making final checks. When the time finally came for the first model to step out, Kwon was on the mezzanine level gazing out at the some 600 attendees who had arrived to see her and so many others’ creative project.
Looking back now, Kwon can remember where it all began. Over the course of a long and extensive process that took over Kwon’s entire life, she knows now that it wouldn’t have been possible without her whole team on the journey with her. Her experience at TFS taught her that it’s all about having a creative vision and the confidence to express your opinion.
“But also recognizing the potential in others and helping them to actualize [that],” Kwon said. “It’s really just words on a page until all these people come and trust me and my vision and their own voice.”
