QUINTIN JAMES
Assistant Sports Editor
On Saturday, March 25, the Black Student Union held their annual fashion show in the William Center MPR. The fashion show, which has been around since BSU’s creation, has evolved in the last few years to be their biggest event of the school year.
The fashion show has been selling out and BSU has brought in famous entertainers from social media to host the event.
This year’s theme for the show was “Black Renaissance,” which was the theme for BSU during Black History Month. The focus is on the positive sides of being black and the re-birth of black culture.
The host of this fashion show was Instagram skit comedian “The Shiggy Show” and the tickets were sold out in advance of the show. There’s always a lot of pressure to put on a good show, but BSU made sure they put in the time to make it a success.
The success has made the tickets run out fast and President Jelissa Samuel knows how challenging it is to accommodate everyone.
“It’s very difficult. It was sold out and we put more tickets out and they sold out. It’s hard denying people but we always try and help everyone. We might need a bigger [venue] in the future,” she said
Public Relations Chair Mondyna Prevot, a senior, talked about the preparation it takes to plan.
Prevot has been on the E-board for the last two years after walking in the fashion show her first two years as a general body member and has seen how much it has grown.
“It takes all year. Once the elections end, the fashion show starts to get planned,” said Prevot.
From the scenes, to the models, to the clothing, it’s a yearlong process to create the fashion show, but it wasn’t always like this.
Due to the popularity of the fashion show in recent years, a fashion show chair position was made so more attention can be put toward the show.
The Fashion Show committee, which is different from the BSU E-board, starts planning in July and are in charge of contracts, and budgets, among other things.
They also have to work with the designers, the host, campus life, University Police, Intercultural Center and other campus groups to make sure the show goes smoothly.
Prevot explained how BSU always had a fashion show, but in the last few years it became a main focus.
“We made it a priority. It always was a smaller thing, but we wanted to make it into a big event. Our bigger budget also allows many options, which help out,” she said.
As Saturday came and the fashion show was about ready to start, the Williams Center was packed with students finding a seat, models getting their clothes ready and the host Shiggy talking to members of the crowd.
The show started off with an opening monologue Shiggy before the first set of models wearing 1920 style clothing came on the stage.
Each set had a different theme, whether it was the 20’s, to the ‘60s Black Panther style, or the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Other sets included older themes from past fashion shows, like “Date Night,” and designers got to show off their clothing lines as well.
Once the high school students, here for Multicultural Weekend, were in attendance, many of them got on the stage with the host to do an impromptu stage walk/dance battle that the crowd loved.
As the show went on, the time in between skits involved the crowd and really made the fashion show enjoyable for everyone in attendance. Between the dance offs, jokes and crowd reaction to the models, the fashion show was a huge success.