Wonderland theme. They danced throughout the show on side stages that
sat next to the runway. Photo by Paul Friel.
Outside of the Student Union, some students chatter and some walk toward their cars. But an audience of over 50 students enter the Grand Palm Room and are taken into a completely different world.
While party music such as “Like a G6” by Far East Movement blasts in the background by DJ Hercules and Owl Radio, students surround a black runway decorated all over by dark green vines and pink tulips, all made by balloons.
On March 14, the Program Board hosted an Alice in Wonderland-themed fashion show, “Fashion Through the Looking Glass,” at 7:30 p.m. The event was put on by Program Board Showcase Chair Ilana Simone, a junior commercial music business major. Both Simone and senior marketing major Julian Hanlan made their way onto the stage at 8 p.m. to welcome the audience and begin the show.
“We were all in the office brainstorming ideas and we didn’t want anything that was too simple that would make it hard for designers to come up with stuff,” Simone said. “We wanted something that was really broad and still creative.”
Simone and the Showcase Committee discussed theme options based off of movies, books, seasons, and color schemes. “Someone threw out the idea of Alice in Wonderland and I was like ‘Oh my gosh, that would be so crazy,’” Simone said. “So we kind of just took it from there and just let the designers play off their imaginations.”
The fashion show featured five fashion lines such as “Draped & Tailored” by Brittany English. All five of the fashion lines were student lines. The show also featured three live performances. One was a musical performance by Sopheye, an FAU singer who considers her genre to be a mix of drum and bass, hip hop, and soul, according to her Facebook page.
The Program Board had been planning the fashion show since the beginning of the spring semester.
the camera. She is standing in front of a pole decorated with balloons
to look like a tree. All Star Events had been blowing up balloons
since 9 a.m. up until the doors opened. Photo by Melissa Landolfa.
The show began with Alexandra Saunders’ line. Saunders is a designer for Xandri & Co and student at FIU. One model wore a green bandeau with a giant bow in the front, paired with denim shorts that faded from blue to white toward the lower end. Another wore a loose pink crop top with a crossed back at the lower end of the shirt, paired with high waisted shorts.
“I enjoyed all the designers,” Saunders said. “They were all very detailed and unique and I can’t wait for it to happen again.”
Simone had her own line featured in the show of dance pants which she calls PooPoos pants. These pants are unisex baggy sweatpants which have detailing such as rips, diamond studs, pockets pulled out with a design on them, and what appears to be pant chains but are actually fabric accents with the same design as what is used on the pockets.
One of the pants were red, and featured a cheetah print design on the pockets and ‘chains.’ After the models modeled the pants for the audience who screamed for the shirtless men wearing the pants, performer Akeem Edwards danced on the runway wearing the PooPoos pants for his dance performance.
In the forest of flowers and vines taking students into a whole new atmosphere sat a brown pole made to look like a tree, with long tan balloons surrounding it, and Cheshire Cat eyes staring out onto the crowd. Four dancers danced on the sides of the runway in body paint to represent different parts of Alice in Wonderland, such as one dancer painted with playing cards all over her body.
“They put their heart and soul into this,” Saunders said. “I love it so much. It was detailed and beautiful — something I’ve never seen before. It was really Alice in Wonderland themed.”
Helping with decorations and the body paint for the dancers, All Star Events had been blowing up the balloons since 9 a.m. right until the doors opened.
Not only did setting up for the event take time, but so did the makeup for all the models. Fatima Caines, a sophomore biology major, had been doing the makeup on the models since 4:30 p.m. that day, up until the moment it was time for the first dancer to go onto the stage.
But working up until the last moment went unnoticed to the students in the crowd.
Here he is modeling the bow tie line, “Joel Franklin Co.” Photo by Paul Friel.
“I just came to observe, see all the decorations and everything,” Darajendayi Wilson, a sophomore entrepreneurship major, said. “This is something I would want to be a part of.”
The show was open for all students to participate in. The models were not required to have any prior experience and were given one run-through before the actual show.
“[I felt] like a star, not gonna lie,” Melissa Coark, a model in the show and senior commercial music technology major, said. “I’ve never done this before so … it’s kind of like I just went out there with confidence and like I’m gonna nail this, [thinking] ‘it’s gonna be awesome,’ and I felt confident with the way it was.”
The show lasted until approximately 9:30 p.m. with one intermission, and the painted dancers dancing throughout the entire show on the stages and near the audience.
“The theme was awesome,” Coark said. “Alice in Wonderland couldn’t have been any better. The dancers and the bodypaint — it was great. Everything was great.”
