[Introduction to fashion show from co-executive director Jade Garcia]
DARASIMI BANKOLE: Escapism…that was the theme of UNITY’s 2026 Spring fashion show. From designers to runway models to executive board members, there were so many people that played a role in making UNITY happen. I got to sit down with two of the three co-executive directors, Sunny Batra and Jade Garcia to gain some insight into their long-term experience in UNITY. For Batra, fashion has always been a huge part of her life as her grandma is a seamstress.
SUNNY BATRA: “I’m very proud to be someone who is from an Indian background and a lot of what I do when I go back to India with my parents is look at clothes and like go through the drawers filled with textiles and like see these pieces that my grandma’s worked on for years and years, like all of the clothes that my grandma like made by hand and like the things in my mom’s closet that are there forever.”
DB: Garcia snuck backstage during a UNITY show her freshman year and hit it off so well with the crew, she decided right then and there to join. Eventually, she made her way onto the executive board. Just like she was able to, she wants every audience member to be able…
JADE GARCIA: “…to kind of appreciate that art form and realize that it’s more than just you know, parading clothes around, like there is meaning behind it and everything is so intentional and especially with our show.”
DB: Every year, UNITY partners with an organization to donate the proceeds to. For the second year in a row, Snow City Arts, an organization that focuses on bringing the arts to children in hospitals, was the beneficiary.
BATRA: “Not only are we giving students an outlet to express themselves, but we’re able to do so in a way that gets to extend to allow other people to express themselves too especially with our beneficiary this year which is providing arts education to kids in hospitals.”
DB: The show’s theme, escapism was meant to represent what it means to become someone else, somewhere else and showcase how fabric can replace reality. Audience member Alyssa Mendez saw the theme present throughout the entire show.
ALYSSA MENDEZ: “I really enjoyed it, seeing all these amazing art pieces and like works of art come to life and the models and like everyone did an amazing job encapsulating what their like mission was.”
DB: Regardless of the theme, Batra views fashion as a form of individualism.
BATRA: “Because it’s such like a vulnerable expression. There’s no other animal on this earth that expresses themselves like the way that humans do with fashion and I think that like it’s our own individual way of taking things that are on our inside and bringing it out when we can’t.”
[Runway music]
DB: When asked about what UNITY means to them in one word, this is what Garcia and Batra had to say.
GARCIA: “I guess I would say an outlet. Like we get so bogged down in all of the academics that it’s really nice to have an outlet and an escape. I’m like, is it kind of corny to say an escape? Like…”
BATRA: “Yeah, I was literally going to just say that in more words. I was going to say space for genuine expression because I feel like a lot of times, students, like we have space to be creative in other spaces, but like here you get to be genuine in a way that’s true to yourself and doesn’t really have limits.”
[Runway music]
DB: If you want to stay up to date with UNITY and other events they host throughout the year, you can follow them on instagram @unityfashionshow. For WNUR News, I’m Darasimi Bankole.
[Runway music continues]
