Photo by Giancarlo Sepulveda
Ramapo College hosted a fashion show this past Friday in the Bradley Center, one which featured clothing lines by current and former students of Ramapo, as well as local designers who wanted the opportunity to promote their designs.
The event, co-sponsored by the Women’s Center and the Black Student Union, was hosted by The Breakfast Club’s Angela Yee of Power 105.1 FM. The syndicated radio personality was excited to have the opportunity to host the event.
“We actually really love hosting fashion shows because I’m really into clothes. Shoes are really more my thing though,” said Yee, who was wearing $2,000 Givenchy boots. When asked about what she was looking forward to the most, Yee said she wanted to see the designers doing something different.
“I like to be inspired by different things so I hope to see something that will spark my interest. New York’s fashion week just passed, so to me it’s about doing things that aren’t necessarily the norm,” said Yee.
The 4-hour affair saw many different clothing lines for men and women and various styles from swimwear and dresses to urban wear such as joggers, snapback hats, athletic wear and even cultural attire native to Africa and the Caribbean. Some of the featured lines included: KC Njoku and Alfonso Urriola’s “Kelechii,” which is an urban line that the duo created to make high fashion affordable.
“Kelechii is Nigerian for ‘give thanks,’” said Njoku. “We come from the urban community and we know how it is, so our goal was to make everything affordable without sacrificing style.”
Jason Mejia’s “King Attire,” Catherine Henry’s “Henriocicollectio,” Tiffany Phillips-Maxwell’s “Ameriblax,” Stacy Angelo’s “Stay” swimwear and Asia Johnson’s “Classic Beauty” clothing line were some of the other featured lines at the show.
Along with these fashion lines came back stories, as well, such as Mejia’s experience losing weight that taught him discipline, and Johnson’s experience growing up not finding fashionable clothes that fit, which inspired her plus-sized clothing line “Classic Beauty.” Ramapo alumna Stacy Angelo was also inspired by her Caribbean roots in designing her swimwear line “Stay.”
“I was inspired by the Caribbean and the Jamaican women in my family,” Angelo said.
Ramapo College student Brooke Jamison pulled together the event to her satisfaction.
“I am happy with the turnout for the fashion show,” stated Jamison via email. “It has been an increase of attendance compared to recent shows; we are always looking to improve and to make it bigger and better.”
The fashion show took months of planning, including getting together the designers and the music performers, who were a mix between students, alumni and local talent. Putting together the stage and lighting, and adding celebrity host Angela Yee with DJ Dark Kent, Jamison helped turn the Ramapo College Auxiliary Gym into New York Fashion Week.
“The production of the show would not be possible if we didn't have students on the fashion show committee to put in countless hours to plan and organize the show,” said Jamison. “This year we wanted to include alumni, so seeing the ‘old school’ versus ‘new school’ scene was great, because we had alumni come back and rip the runway with current students. Also, it was great to get student performers and designers to display the talent that we have on this campus. We want to continue to have this show grow and get more people involved.”
rwhite2@ramapo.edu
