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Fashion STATEment: ISU Fashion Show fills Stephens


By Ronnie Miller/The Tribune
Iowa State University junior and model Karrie Cooling, far right, of Omaha, Neb., is made up by Stephanie Miller, with Studio 7 Salon and Spa in Ames, as Cooling gets ready to walk the runway Saturday at the 27th Annual ISU Fashion Show at C.Y. Stephens Auditorium.
By Dan Wright, Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, April 26, 2009 12:01 AM CDT
Big city fashion found its way to C.Y. Stephens Auditorium again Saturday night, only this time, the 27th-annual ISU Fashion Show was bigger and better than ever before.

 With prizes doubled from the last event, and Marc by Marc Jacobs designer Mansoor Amjed slotted as the guest designer, 130 collections were shown to a near-capacity crowd.

 “It’s gotten better and better every year,” model-designer Amanda Steines said. “When I was a freshman, I wasn’t crazy about the set. I thought it was minimal and the makeup wasn’t the best. But every year since then it’s gotten better, gotten bigger, and more people have started to come as a result.”

 Steines has been involved with the student-run show since her first year at Iowa State. Now a senior in apparel merchandising, design and production, Steines said the show has grown considerably over the past four years, to the point that Stephens Auditorium may not have enough seats to accommodate the interest.

 The theme of this year’s event was darker than ever before. With bare white trees set against a dark background and illuminated by pastel stage lights, and models looking strategically disheveled with hair pointing everywhere, the set resembled something out of a Tim Burton movie.

 “This year the theme is really cohesive, and you can see it’s kind of a nightmarish, dark-dream fantasy theme,” Steines said. “It’s an adrenaline rush, especially on your first walk, but once you get off (the runway), you want to just get back out there and do it again. It’s kind of fun, it’s kind of like skydiving or something like that.”

 The fashion show started in 1982 on the front steps of McKay Hall, but moved to Fisher Theatre as more and more fans attended the shows. Eventually, it had to be moved to Stephens.

 “It’s all exciting, you get a taste of New York fashion in Ames,” designer and co-producer Chelsea Stumo said. “The final show, seeing it all come together, makes all the crazy hours worthwhile.”

 Stumo’s collection, titled “Hughes of The Sky,” was one of the 130 selected from 200 entries in early April. Stumo interned with Marc Jacobs in New York City this past year, and noticed a distinct Iowa flavor building within the industry.

  “A lot of fashion graduates work for these companies, and then come back to Ames looking for interns,” she said. “Amjed is from West Des Moines Valley.”

 Designer and co-producer Aerielle Smith said Iowans are finding employment with big-name designers because of the quality of educators available to students in the ISU College of Design.

 “There are a handful of people from Des Moines alone at Marc Jacobs, and a lot of the other brands (employ) people from Iowa,” Smith said. “Some of the textbooks used around the world are written by our professors here on campus. Other colleges can get the books, but the people that write them are right here.” The fashion show is run by solely by students, and all the proceeds get stashed away for the following year’s show. Stumo said the expenses average about $25,000 per show.

 Each collection is designated a category including historical, urban, casual and experimental, child, graduate, and portfolio. An hour before the runway show, an open display was held in the lobby for portfolio designs and student collections in the show. One of the award-winning designs, made by ISU freshman Madeline Pagel, was a dress made entirely of papier mache, newspaper and duct tape.

 Designers receive $300 for a first-place finish, $200 for second and $100 for third. The collection deemed “Best in Show” gets a $500 cash prize. Stumo said monetary winnings help ease the pain of paying out of pocket for clothing and material.

 “It’s our own money that we put into buying fabric and things like that, so it’s nice to get a little bit of a reimbursement for what we put in,” she said.