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UBC Fashion Show 2009: Yvonne Chew reports

April 8th, 2009 | Published in Blog

UBC Fashion Show

Words and photos by Yvonne Chew.

Yvonne Chew, photographer and String Magazine correspondent, attended a student-organized fashion show at UBC, sponsored by the International Relations Student Association for the purpose of raising funds to send a UBC team to the National Model United Nations Conference this month. Here’s what she had to say about it:

Something is in the midst. Fashion is traveling from the city fashion week into the dark, cold, concrete gyms of campus grounds. Yes, I’m talking about the UBC fashion show, the first of its kind organized by Political Science student and model Henry Gordon-Smith. How did I find out about it? Strange coincidence that I was listening to the very same Henry Gordon-Smith and makeup artist Cheri Chung discussing their plans while I drove them home from a creative shoot I did of Frankenstein’s Bride for my own portfolio. They were hoping to get some photography and asked if I’d be interested to take photos. I said, “sure,” as I though it would be great to document the event.

A few weeks passed and along came the day of the show on Saturday, March 14, 2009. In the rain and cold, fashionistas dressed in their best garb gathered at Osbourne Gym F beside the tennis courts at UBC. Drawn by the sound on thumping music, my husband Stan and I made our way from the parking lot into the gym. I didn’t expect an open gym that let in the fresh cold night air–luckily, a message was sent out earlier from their facebook group asking people to dress warmly. The lights were bright and everyone was seated anticipating the start of the show at 8:00pm. Like any Vancouver fashion show, the show started fashionably late by several minutes. When it started, the lights went dimmed, wiping out my previous camera adjustments. I frantically adjusted my camera ISO level, speed, and aperture to accommodate for the change.

Audience members with home-made posters sat on my left ready to cheer on their favorite model and/or designer. Only in a campus would you see a culture resembling that of a football game. Most of the audience were UBC students, friends, and families of the designers. I thought it was lovely how supportive an environment it was. The first part of the show focused on everyday students wearing their own fashion and strutting down the runway. Henry wanted to give everyone a chance to model, even those that didn’t fit the typical model build or height. It was nice to see models of all sizes and shapes strut down the runway.

Unfortunately, the break between the first show and the rest of the shows was a little odd. They had a sole model stand in the middle of the runway to auction of a t-shirt for charity. Only one t-shirt worth $35 was auctioned off for $25. Some were tickled by the model taking the shirt off his back but I think a couple of fashionistas coming down from the high of New York fashion week were ghastly turned off. I perceived it was a way for the back staff to buy some time in the break. “Be the change” was written on the shirt that auctioned off to a bidder who was a nice man. I sorely hoped the rest of the show wasn’t going to go down in this direction. I looked around and saw no one else leaving the show. I was glad people stayed and even more people joined the audience as the show progressed. The next show opened up with some awesome designs by some local designers. Now, this was what I came here to see. I wasn’t disappointed and at the end of the show–even the crowd was cheering and clapping. Designers who participated in the show were Sherry Perrault, Morgan Ard, Jen Cameron, Kate Scorah and T.M. Pasnak.

The love and support given into the show had paid off. The setting was unusual and out of the ordinary but lent itself to a very industrial feel. The beautiful clothing showed quite well as it contrasted with the concrete walls that had the words “This Area is for Authorized Use Only” painted on them. I was quite proud of Henry Gordon-Smith and his team for putting together a great show. For a first time organizing a fashion show in a gym, they did an amazing job–and I believe we’ll see more of these types of fashion shows. Already, I’m hearing about a couple of events being planned by other people, one in Langara College and perhaps another by another student model. It’s a phenomenon that’s starting to spread to the student body as a way to reach out and bring awareness to different causes. Events like these are a great way for designers to reach a student demographic and build a following beginning from students’ campus life throughout their careers and into their lifestyles.

To learn more about Yvonne and see more of her photos click here.