Through unwavering dedication and immense respect for the craft, the Fashion Association at LSU’s Spring Show challenges the notion that students are incapable of thorough event arrangement, proving quite the opposite with foundational dream-chasing and fashion-styled rebirth.
The FALSU’s annual fashion show will be on May 3 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, with its cocktail hour starting at 5 p.m. and the show itself following. Tickets are available for purchase on April 1 at 12 p.m., and the theme is “A Century in Style.”
The audience gets to see finalized designs, stylings and model walks, but there is much left to do in preparation for the event. Take a peek behind the curtains of what it takes for students to put on such an occasion.
Senior apparel design major JM Maleszewski is the senior show chair for the event. She started out as a member of the Fashion Association for two years, and then she moved up in her position once she applied for fashion show chair. After starting as an assistant show chair as a junior, she was then promoted to senior show chair for her final year at LSU.
Maleszewski explained how she is a supervisor for the entirety of the show. From overseeing the venue, ticketing and invitations to mentoring the junior show chair in her responsibilities, teaching the assistant chairs how to direct participants and tracking show progress, she is an orchestrator of both vocation and vogue.
“I always loved fashion from a young age, but I never wanted to just be an artist. I think a lot of people have that misconception that fashion is just art,” Maleszewski said. “When it is absolutely an art form, it’s also a business. It’s a psychology and it’s science.”
Maleszewski and the junior show chair, Amelia Kraus, began preparations in the fall by choosing a venue and determining the assistant chair lineup. Once February rolled around, they opened up designer, stylist and model applications, and they also started planning the venue’s layout.
Venue selection calls for a calculation of the number of designers and stylists, as well as how many looks these chic engineers create. The Spring Show has sold out over the past two years at 600 tickets with a combined number of 45 designers and stylists, plus the models needed to show off the designs.
This number required the fashion show’s chairs to work around the participant’s schedules, and chairs and participants alike had to stay on top of their responsibilities outside of the show.
“This is fully a labor of love. I spend almost all of my days in the lobby, doing homework and going to the museum and getting to hang out with all of my fashion friends and answering questions if people need me,” Maleszewski said. “Something about me is that I do a lot, I say a lot and I feel a lot because I care a lot.”
Sophomore public relations major Nila Guhasarkar is one of the two assistant show chairs, and she has been a member of the Fashion Association for two years now. Earlier in the school year, she was presented with the opportunity to apply for her chair position, and she jumped at the chance.
“I love fashion. I have loved fashion forever. I’m not a fashion major, but I’ve been sewing since I was eight years old,” Guhasarkar said.
Guhasarkar recounted how she was nine years old when she was first involved with a fashion show. It was at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans, and she fell in love with the show scene almost instantly.
Guhasarkar said her and her co-chair’s responsibilities fall mostly on the communication aspect of planning. They correspond with the event’s vendors, VIP guests and handle group chats involving the designers and stylists. They also manage the model casting calls and the pre-show photoshoot sessions.
Guhasarkar emphasized how communication is synonymous to clarification, and without this proper consistency, it would not allow opportunity for outside collaboration. This means that loaning pieces from Time Warp Boutique, a Baton Rouge vintage clothing store, would not have been possible. Luckily, communication is all with the show’s organization.
Guhasarkar’s correspondence with show participants allowed her to open up her own interpretation for what the theme “A Century in Style” means to her.
“‘A Century in Style’ to me means showcasing fashion throughout time in a way that’s personal to each designer. That’s obviously our theme, but everyone has a different view of how that theme is translated to their personal style,” Guhasarkar said. “I think it’s really subjective, which is why I love this year’s theme, because it gives everyone a chance to put their own spin on it.”
In order to build excitement for the show, a glimpse behind the scenes on the chairs’ part is a must. Junior merchandising major Destyni Johnson is the Fashion Association’s social media chair.
Johnson documents virtual glimpses into what goes into the creative processes, typically posting on the Fashion Association’s Instagram. She explained how she has a lot of freedom over her content.
A specific aspect Johnson posts are the show’s styleboards. They show what a designer’s model will be wearing, along with what specific garments will be used. It helps in monitoring participants as they stay on theme, and the boards are also used in the lookbook photoshoots. In being a part of this portion of the show, Johnson witnesses a completely different side of what goes into fashion through the lens of “A Century in Style.”
“It means evolution and repetition, just seeing overall creativeness,” Johnson said. “That’s what fashion means to me: reinventing. The continuous changing and elevating of stuff from the past and then creating your own things from the future.”
Naturally, there would not be a fashion show without its fashion designers. Senior apparel design major Martha Rigney is a senior designer for the Spring Show. She has created eight looks for the show, and her process involved meticulous conceptualizing, workshopping and physical laboring to allow her ideas to come to life.
Rigney discussed how inspiration for her looks is drawn from vintage fashion. This meant hours of whimsical reinterpretation of designs from the ‘50s and ‘60s. She stressed how she was able to teach herself textile print design, allowing her to design all of her prints herself. For this year’s show, she decided to focus on the novelty of food-themed clothing, and she explained one of her favorite looks that will be exhibited during the show.
Rigney explained how she created a drop-waisted dress with a boned bodice, similar to a corset. She even added a fabric belt as a nice vintage touch and finished the piece with a bubble skirt.
“I took some of the modern trends I’ve been seeing and fused them with this more vintage look,” Rigney said. “I think it creates something that a woman today would wear. I’m not just trying to make 1950s costumes; it’s all about walking that balance. Some of my looks are a little more modern, and some of them are a little more on the vintage side.”
Rigney said that designing for the Spring Show has been gratifying because she has been able to put all of her skills to work, from sewing to beading. The culmination of stressful late nights working on these pieces has led to an exceptional personal milestone for the designer.
The Fashion Association’s preparational process has proven that despite the hardships surrounding time management and the balance of student extracurriculars and social life, the students themselves are the moving parts of this large-scale project. The students’ unique personalities and fashion senses allow the show to be as fashionably abundant as it can be.
“People have this idea that students are somehow less than people in the real world, and while maybe their skills, tactics and strategies aren’t as refined, our designers create masterpieces,” Maleszewski said. “I always like to say that the fashion show is a great reminder for what can be rather than what is.”