[Music from show opening]
DARASIMI BANKOLE: At Northwestern, fashion isn’t just about clothes. It’s a canvas for storytelling, community, and creativity. Each spring, UNITY, a student-run fashion organization, puts on a runway show with a new theme. This year’s? Myth. But not just the Greek gods kind.
JAIDA HILL: We picked the theme as like a group and we kind of did this one because we didn’t want something that was too limiting just because a lot of the designers and stuff that we recruit don’t necessarily make clothes for the theme.
DB: That’s Weinberg senior Jaida Hill, UNITY modeling director and also a designer who had her own pieces in the show.
HILL: So myth could be I feel like greek mythology, it could be cultural myths, myth as in like you know rumors and things like that. It’s really up to any interpretation.
DB: That open-ended theme made space for designers to get bold and for models like School of Communication freshman Vani Bansal to step into more than just a look.
VANI BANSAL: I’ve always loved performing and just like being in front of people trying to like showcase a part of your personality, like keeping that straight face is also very fun because it makes you feel like empowered in a certain way like wearing those clothes. And I think it’s really nice to bring like a designer’s creations in front of people.
[Runway music]
DB: Empowerment took many forms, from sleek silhouettes to clothes made out of majority plastic bags. Bansal modeled one of these pieces made of plastic bags.
BANSAL: It was made exactly with 309 plastic bags because that’s the amount of plastic bags that are used in Chicago every minute and just being able to tell that story through clothing and also feel trusted in by the designer to tell that story to other people is just a very like delightful experience.
DB: That kind of innovation speaks to UNITY’s recent focus on sustainability, a thread running through the last few shows. AnnaRose Jones, a Weinberg senior and UNITY’s marketing director for the past two years, says sustainability has been central to the group’s recent themes.
ANNAROSE JONES: The past few years, our theme has been kind of circled around sustainability and reusability.
DB: From first-time designers to experienced seniors, UNITY members build skills and confidence every year.
JONES: Being able to see people who had literally zero experience with sewing when they came into this club be able to design and sew and create just like an amazing piece of clothing and fashion and art, that’s super cool to me every year.
DB: And while models and designers are the most visible faces, UNITY made sure those behind the scenes had their moment too.
BANSAL: It was amazing how the show was curated to let those people behind the scenes also have their own moment because what they do is like super valuable too.
DB: It’s also a show with purpose. Every year, UNITY donates its ticket proceeds to charity. This year’s recipient is Snow City Arts – an organization that brings creativity to children in hospitals.
BANSAL: All of the proceeds that come from ticket sales and everything like that go directly to a charity organization that we choose every year. This year it was Snow City Arts which is an organization that works with children who are in hospitals and it really helps them get their creative juices flowing and becomes a creative outlet for them and we really resonated with that mission so being able to highlight that charity organization as well is really important to us.
DB: That impact didn’t go unnoticed by the crowd. Weinberg freshman Ainee Wittayathawornwong was in the audience, and left feeling inspired.
AINEE WITTAYATHAWORNWONG: Unity is stunning, there’s like endless possibility. You can just see that students have so much capabilities and they just do like more than you expect.
[Applause from final walk during the show]
DB: From myths to materials, UNITY’s show this year wasn’t just a runway. It was a runway of possibilities.
DB: For WNUR News, I’m Darasimi Bankole.
