Watch The Fashion Event virtually on Facebook and YouTube or attend the viewing celebration at the Plaza at Midtown in Auburn on April 9.
From the darkness of 2020, the Department of Consumer and Design Sciences in the College of Human Sciences and the Apparel Merchandising and Design Association present The Fashion Event: Emergent, the annual student-led fashion showcase and an expression of restoration, growth, and sustainability.
The Fashion Event will premiere virtually on April 9 at 7 p.m. Past years have seen the premier fashion showcase at the Auburn University Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum, but to ensure the safety of students and guests, while embracing a virtual environment to further share the experience and visualize themes of sustainability, a video will take the place of the live runway show.
“Everything has changed. This year, we’ve had to create our own map to plan The Fashion Event,” said AMDA President Elizabeth Bundrick. “We wanted something to reflect this past year. Emergent is coming out of the darkness of 2020 and into the light of 2021. It will be a video experience, and our themes of sustainability and nature are reflected in the video, so it should feel like a normal runway show, like you were watching Fashion Week on television.”
Apparel design senior and Fashion Event Decorations Chair Gin Jager will present two lines in The Fashion Event. Her work – one Auburn-inspired collection and a floral line – are a culmination of what she’s done this year and the work that never saw the runway last year when The Fashion Event had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 safety concerns.
After such a tumultuous year, Jager hopes that the floral line especially will bring a feeling of peace to guests of The Fashion Event.
“Flowers reflect growth. When you think of a seed, there’s so much stress it has to go through to bloom into something beautiful,” Jager said. “And the reason why I wanted to be a designer is I want to make people feel beautiful. If you’re going to wear one of my designs, I want you to remember it for the rest of your life. Making someone feel beautiful frees them to fully experience the moment, so that’s what inspired me to create the floral line.”
Other collections include swimwear, streetwear, and wedding lines. All designs, plus the stories behind them and designer bios, will be featured in The Fashion Event Look Book, a new element to the annual event to illuminate students’ inspirations and backgrounds.
Look book preorders open Tuesday, April 6 and close on midnight on Saturday, April 10 via The Fashion Event page at aub.ie/fashionevent. To watch the virtual event, visit @thefashioneventau on Facebook. A viewing party will also be hosted at The Plaza at Midtown on April 9 from 6 – 9 p.m.