ETSU’s Marketing and Merchandising Program will be hosting its annual fashion show this year on Nov. 3 displaying fashion from the Y2K culture.
Vice President of the Collegiate Merchandising Association, Natalie Hale, said that the program wants to express diversity, equity and inclusion in this year’s show.
The show is a large project put on by the students from one of Dr. Sookhyun Kim’s courses that focuses on fashion advertisement. The course consists of 12 students who have broken into four groups to put together the show.
These groups consist of model managers, stage managers, merchandise producers and a promotional team. Hale says that they followed in the steps of major designers bringing back Y2K inspired designs leading to the show’s focus.
“When people are going to attend, they are going to be seeing a lot of different styles and fashion from Y2K,” said Hale. “So you’re going to be seeing a lot of pastel, brighter colors and neon colors together. You’ll be seeing low-rise pants and matching sweatsuits too, so [the models] will be wearing matching tops and bottoms.”
Hale said that every model will be in a different style group focusing on certain trends found throughout Y2K. She said that there is a lot of inspiration from the pop icons during that time; icons such as Justin Timberlake, Paris Hilton, Destiny’s Child and the Spice Girls. The focus will stray from casual wear to homing in on the looks seen on TV during the early 2000s.
The show will be using clothing found at secondhand stores to promote sustainability. Rather than design the clothes, the shows merchandise managers have explored beyond campus to ask for donations and secondhand clothing. Hale mentioned that one consistency about fashion is that it is on a continuous cycle. The cycle of fashion tends to bring trends from 10 to 20 years ago to the present.
“We do not design the clothes, a lot of this has come from secondhand shopping as well as donations,” Hale said. “In the year 2022, we have been seeing a lot in the fashion industry, those Y2K looks coming back…so that was our reasoning for doing Y2K because certain fall, spring and summer line by major designers are showing these fashion trends coming back.”
To promote inclusion, equity and diversity in their program, Hale says that their models will range in gender, race and size this year. She says that the show will incorporate men and women, those ranging from a size zero to a size 18.
“We are trying to highlight the way fashion is becoming more inclusive,” said Hale. “We are trying to express to everyone that no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, everyone is going to be connected by fashion in some way.”
The fashion show also collaborates with the Collegiate Merchandising Association (CMA), which allows any person affiliated with ETSU to become involved in working with fashion. Hale says this event is giving students a chance to interact with the program and to work with the CMA, opening themselves to the fashion world.
This year’s fashion show will be held on Nov. 3 at 6 p.m. in the Culp Center Cave. To learn more about this event, visit the program’s Instagram @etsumerchandising or contact Dr. Sookhyun Kim at kims05@etsu.edu or Natalie Hale at natalie@etsu.edu.
