MODA Motown vogue present drives donations to breast most cancers charity | WMU Information

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Pupil clothes designers and vogue aficionados at Western Michigan College revved up their artistic expertise for a trigger. The Merchandising Alternatives and Design Affiliation (MODA) raised $2,000 for the Ford Warriors in Pink initiative with its Motown Vogue Present on the Gilmore Automobile Museum, supported by Seelye Ford.

“The present was really magical,” says Samantha Morehead, MODA president. “It’s the most rewarding factor if you pour numerous hours over months of planning one thing, and also you lastly see it come to life in entrance of you and get to look at others get pleasure from and applaud our pupil designers.”

A sold-out crowd of 300 college students, household and neighborhood members got here out for the occasion, which included a VIP expertise among the many traditional vehicles contained in the museum. Your complete night time was coordinated and executed totally by college students.

“The viewers completely beloved it! Each mannequin that walked out, the group cheered and applauded,” Morehead says. “It was a enjoyable, upbeat environment and viewers members offered rave opinions about their expertise.”

Six designers had been chosen for awards on the finish of the night time, together with:

• Galina Roehl: Most Cohesive Type Line

• Kyle Shannon: Finest Styled Line

• Maggie Ek: Most Marketable

• Grace Stibich: Finest Use of Supplies

• Genna Gotts: Most Inventive Use of Supplies (Warriors in Pink)

• Julia LeKander: Finest Development (Warriors in Pink)

“I am simply in awe of how Western and the alternatives I’ve had in this system have made me a greater designer,” says Lekander, a vogue design pupil who will graduate in December. That is the second MODA vogue present she’s participated in, and this time she each showcased her personal clothes and performed a lead function as designer chair.

“Once I first transferred to Western two years in the past, I did not have any background in vogue design or the trade except for stitching business patterns in my room for enjoyable,” she says. “However over the previous two years, I discovered all these completely different shops linked to the trade.”

Giving Again

The partnership with Warriors in Pink gave MODA a chance to get again to its roots; the group was based in 1998 by two vogue design college students whose moms each battled breast most cancers. Consequently, MODA’s first few exhibits in its early years additionally served as fundraisers for Susan G. Komen of Southwest Michigan.

“It is particular that this time round we might convey that again to MODA,” Morehead says. “My household’s been impacted by most cancers since I began school, and I do know what it is like watching a beloved one undergo remedy and the way laborious it’s. So being concerned in that is actually significant to me.”

MODA started its partnership with Warriors in Pink in June 2021 when a current alumna helped safe donations of tons of of bandanas left over from the initiative’s fundraising campaigns for breast most cancers sufferers by Susan G. Komen and the Pink Fund. A number of pupil designers used these bandanas to assemble their clothes for the present. The give attention to sustainability carried over from a vogue design course led by Dr. Mary Simpson, assistant professor.

“She’s actually taking that sustainability aspect and doing ‘zero waste,'” difficult college students to not throw away something or buy any new supplies, Morehead says. “Any additional cloth they used exterior of the Ford scarves was cloth they already had of their private collections by designing different clothes.”

Sustainability was additionally the main focus of the newest New York Vogue Week, which Morehead received the chance to attend in February by Western’s inaugural New York Vogue Week Competitors. Grace Stibich, who received second place, will get her personal behind-the-scenes expertise on the occasion’s fall run in September.

“Becoming a member of MODA my sophomore yr was the most effective selections I’ve made throughout my school expertise. MODA has allowed me to develop as an individual and chief. I’ve been pushed out of my consolation zone and am a greater particular person due to it,” says Morehead, who will graduate this month with a bachelor’s diploma in advertising. Along with her journey to New York Vogue Week, she has held two management positions and deliberate two vogue exhibits throughout her time with MODA.

“The reminiscences I’ve made throughout my time on this group I’ll eternally cherish. I’m so endlessly happy with the superb experiences I’ve had on this group, and I can not consider a greater approach to say ‘goodbye’ following absolutely the success of this yr’s vogue present.”

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