By Michelle Menner
The lights were lowered, the stage was set, the music was pumping, the clothes were fabulous and all of the glitz and glamour was for a great cause.
Directors Yvonne Pearson and Shalanda Wills finally were able to see their dream become a reality on March 29 when the Black Student Union presented its first ever benefit fashion show entitled “Green Light, Looking Back to Move Forward.”
The show, which unveiled in Alumni Hall, kicked off to raise awareness about AIDS in Africa and the Invisible Children of Uganda. All the proceeds from the show went to the SOS Foundation and the Invisible Children Foundation.
Saturday night’s event was a fashion show through the decades because learning from the past helps people to begin to change the future, organizers said. Pearson said the show was an “entertaining way to educate” and stressed the correlation between fashion and history.
Tour guide George Moorehead took the audience on a journey from the Cotton Club set in the 1920s complete with flappers to the 1960s flower power and protest, and then moved the audience through the millennium with the models strutting their stuff to the sounds of John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change” and the Black Eyed Peas’ “Where is the Love?” courtesy of D.J. Frank Gaitan.
The show’s success is due to the hard work of so many people over the span of almost a year.
“It’s a great collaborative effort,” said Pearson.
Starting in May 2007, Pearson and Wills began the process of envisioning and organizing the show. They felt that this year’s fashion show needed to be different from the fashion shows of BSU past, so they decided to introduce the idea of the first ever benefit fashion show.
“I like to be the first to do things. I like leading the way,” Pearson said.
However, Pearson and Wills could not pull off such an ambitious show without the help of the McDaniel community and local businesses who all believed in the cause.
In October, information sessions were held for all those who wanted to participate in the show in some capacity. At the start of one of these sessions Pearson said, “I’m nervous. This is the biggest thing I’ve done in my life.”
Her humor and passion for the project was present throughout the information session and she provided words of warning to all who wanted to participate, “I don’t put out mess,” she said.
Fashion show practices were soon underway starting at the end of October and continued through the fall semester, and began again at the start of the spring semester. During this time 32 models, representing a variety of campus organizations, met four days a week for approximately two hours each evening to prepare for the show.
Gamma Sigma Sigma President and model Amy Faby said, “we came together. We all had laughs and got to know each other really well.”
The following campus organizations also lent a helping hand to the show: Amnesty International, Alpha Phi Omega, Gamma Sigma Sigma, SGA, McDaniel’s sociology department, College Activities and Phi Delta Theta.
Other students volunteered to help with behind the scenes activities. Hair stylist Tosin Abraham and make-up artist Stephanie Mackoul created the special looks for all of the models. David Olorunfemi and Lindsey Shue designed the programs.
The scenery was straight from the minds of Rachel Bishop and Conrad, and Lia Snow and Rudi Robinson were responsible for the inventive choreography for a dance scene in the show.
Local businesses also were a part of the volunteer effort with their generosity. Westminster’s Kohl’s and Rue 21 contributed all the beautiful clothes to the show as did Delia’s of Towson.
Other businesses donated gift certificates or items for the show’s raffle. Local restaurants Friendly’s, McDonald’s, Olive Garden, and Texas Roadhouse all donated gift certificates, but the four pairs of Versace sunglasses donated by the Center for Total Eye Care were the most coveted raffle gifts of all.
Even though the show featured fantastic giveaways and great clothes, this year’s BSU fashion show truly was about everyone in the community coming together to help support a wonderful cause.
In their parting words in the shows program, Pearson and Wills said, “Remember hope can change the world.”