It’s one thing to binge the new season of a trending show, but it’s another to step foot in it entirely
Boiler Fashion Threads will host its Bridgerton Ball at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Neil Armstrong Atrium. Sara Khandelwal, a junior in business analytics and information management and president of Boiler Fashion Threads, said the Bridgerton Ball is a themed social event based on the recently trending “Bridgerton” TV show.
“We have different elements of the show, like ‘Time of Season’ where people can sign up as debutantes, and one of them is going to be the ‘Time of Season,’” Khandelwal said. “(The ‘Time of Season’) would be somebody who’s best-dressed, or someone who’s more socially active.”
‘Time of Season’ is not the only social element being incorporated. Other elements, such as the dance cards from the show, are going to be present at the event.
“Dance cards (are for) when you want to ask somebody for a dance favor. You can simply go and write your name on the dance card,” Khandelwal said. “Then people can reject or accept (the dance card). Other than that, we just have a more organized social where people can talk, engage with each other, and we’re going to have food (such as) desserts and finger sandwiches (at the ball).”
The inspiration behind the Bridgerton Ball came during a discussion with other members of the club.
“There’s a huge following of the show on campus, too,” Khandelwal said. “So we just wanted to bring in together the community to bind together through one shared interest. That’s an easier way to know (others) when you have a shared interest, people can just go in without awkwardness, talk about the show, and then make friends.”
But organizing the Bridgerton Ball did not come without challenges.
“I think one of the challenges that we faced is that whenever you mentioned ‘ball’, Purdue students kind of feel like it would require a lot of effort to attend,” Khandelwal said. “You have to dress up and stuff. There were some people that I talked to who were really interested (in) a British-style event, but a ball wasn’t something that they were looking for. We kind of changed our part to a more social night, curated social, rather than a particular ball. If you want to dress up, you can dress up, but if you just want to show up in just regular clothes, (you are more) than welcome.”
Boiler Fashion Threads hosts events like the Bridgerton Ball to align with the club’s goal to organize curated social events for students who want to express themselves through style.
“We strongly believe that fashion is an expression of your emotions or your personality and everything,” Khandelwal said. “And it’s much easier to do it when you have other people, too, who believe in the same thing. So we just created this organization where people believe in the fact that through fashion, you can express yourself.”
For students who are interested in attending the Bridgerton Ball, there are flyers around campus with QR codes to sign up, as well as on the Instagram account @boilerfashionthreads.