Style At Mac returns with their annual fashion show
By: Hafsa Sahki
When different areas of the arts come together to create a fun eventful show, what emerges is a diverse and exciting event. Style At Mac’s annual fashion show is back after a year-long absence.
This year’s team has focused on showcasing fashion from different countries, searching for local artists and reaching out to McMaster arts clubs.
Style At Mac was absent during the 2016-2017 academic year. As SAM Vice President of Events Naomi Doe explained, the previous executives graduated, so the team had to focus on hiring a new cohort for this year.
“The two best parts about coming back is that you get the platform that your priors have built, so you have that integration into that Mac community… the people who love your club and already know about your club, and then you get that fresh new start,” said Doe.
“With new executives [and] new photographers. It’s exciting building a club from the bottom [up]… we have a very adaptable structure and everyone has adaptable roles… it’s a very malleable club with a great history.”
This year’s theme, “statera”, was designed to give designers a flexible premise. Fashion artists are either trying conveying harmony with their outfits, or deliberately disrupting that balance with a mixture of patterns, colours and textures that work against each other.
“It doesn’t restrict your designers at all… [in this way], we can invite a wide variety of people with different backgrounds to that show,” explained Doe.
Selecting designers for the show can be very spontaneous. Doe explained that SAM reached out to Batik Batouk, a Ghanaian designer, after they were featured in the Silhouette.
SAM tries to integrate students into the fashion industry. To do this, the club reaches out to external designers, such as this year’s Thrifty Designer.
Various clubs within the McMaster community are also featured in the show like Threadwork, Mac Bangladesh and Mac Dance.
“We really wanted to have a club from Mac to represent themselves. Mac has a really great diverse community… [and] if we’re not showcasing the diversity in [what] Mac students wear, then we wouldn’t be doing our due justice,” said Doe.
“I love mixing and matching different areas of the arts together… when you pu them together I think it makes something really nice… it also adds to a student’s appeal to the show. Many students are interested in fashion, some are not committed to it fully, they just think about it a little bit, or they would like to… but when you have all these different kinds of performances, someone’s going to find an interest in your show in some way. You might know someone in Mac Dance, you might know someone in Mac Bangladesh… [or] you want to see some live music that day… that’s part of the reason that we wanted to incorporate all these arts into the show.”
This year’s show is partnered with Smiling Over Sickness, a student-run organization at McMaster that aims to raise funds for children living with an illness. All proceeds from the show go to the charity.
The show has ten segments, eight which showcase the designs, the other two broken up by a performance by Mac Dance and a cultural collection by Mac Bangladesh. SAM’s lookbook, popular collections showcased on their social media pages earlier this year, will start off the show, showcasing garments for all four seasons.
“Because we’re starting up [again this year], we’re very open to people coming to us. We love when people reach out to us and say ‘I have this talent, can you showcase it?’ If it fits, absolutely, yes, we’d love to feature you… we’re very happy to collaborate with them.”
Doe is excited to push the idea of involving different areas of the arts into the show, and is hoping to showcase a spoken word performance during the fashion segments in future.
The fashion show is on March 24 at the Hamilton Convention Centre. Tickets are $25 and $35 for a VIP Experience. Follow the club’s Facebook page @StyleAtMAC for more information.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
