Kirkwood students to host first fashion show since 2019

CEDAR RAPIDS — Kirkwood Community College students are preparing nearly 100 looks for their first fashion show since 2019.

On April 24, the work of students wrapping up their second year in the school’s apparel, merchandising and design program will be on full display with children’s wear, adaptive wear for those with disabilities or unique body proportions and the main show focusing on a new theme.

Evolve, the main event of the Kirkwood Fashion Show, will narrate a storyline using colors and visuals to demonstrate the dangers of fast fashion with mounting concerns about climate change.

“We’ll be showing how much we harm the earth,” said Marifer Recendez, Kirkwood student and fashion show promotional coordinator. “In our program, we do talk a lot about fast fashion, unsustainable stores, how we can be sustainable with our clothes.”

Demonstrating that on the catwalk will be a pile with 80 pounds of clothes — the average amount of clothing that people use or dispose of each year.

In a nod to English designer Vivienne Westwood, the fashion show will incorporate staged protesters barging through as models stomp the U-shaped runway in colors arranged from bright at the beginning to dark at the end. The fashion magnate’s Fall 2022 show, held earlier this year, used similar elements with signs conveying the imminence of climate change and the need for immediate action.

“It’s putting it out there that this generation really cares about climate change,” said Tiffany Ford, apparel merchandising and design adjunct instructor at Kirkwood Community College, who teaches the fashion show procedures course. “We’re creating a story.”

Starting with bright lights, clothes at the beginning will embody bright, cheery colors and florals to evoke nature. After a transition through yellow, red and green, the show will end in black.

“We’re trying to send a message of what earth is becoming now,” Recendez said.

Clothing for some portions of the fashion event will include garments made by students throughout their time at Kirkwood. The main event, Evolve, will feature nearly 30 models wearing clothing curated from a selection of local retailers — three runway looks each.

“It’s a matter of making sure items fit the models and their body types, learning about the different body types and colors that look good on different skin tones,” Ford said.

Adaptability wear, a special endeavor with this show, has paired students to people with disabilities and people with unique body proportions to create custom pieces with their needs in mind.

Ford said the opportunity to attend a fashion show should be an enjoyable opportunity many spectators don’t often get.

Comments: (319) 398-8340; elijah.decious@thegazette.com