The UBC Fashion Show, put on by the International Relations Student Association (IRSA), started 40 minutes late. However, as the packed audience lined up neatly by the UBC Outdoor Pool, I was excited. The runway was on a walkway positioned above the pool—which was pretty cool. But considering this show was given “positive reviews by both members of the Vancouver fashion industry and UBC students” last year, I was quite disappointed.

The show was divided into six parts. The fashion show’s theme was “Fashion Freedom,” where the IRSA wanted to show that fashion could bring awareness to issues like sustainibility. Emily Carr students Amanda Klassen’s and Neudis Abreu’s  fashion presentation, called “Strapped,” did not impress me at all. Shiny and gaudy plastic neon ties that cover your front and back? No, thank you. Black sashes that have loops to hold your empty beercans? Maybe if I worked in the recycling industry. It was innovative, but visually unimpressive.

The IRSA tried to integrate UBC wear with Joma Sport wear into the show to portray the fashion trends of students on campus. There was a skit about four guys hitting on one girl and getting rejected. I could identify some of the characters they were trying to portray: the Commerce student, the MUG leader, the T-shirt and Jeans Guy, the Ski Bum and the Jock. But what happened to our Hippies and Forestry kids? Obviously the UBC line had nothing much to offer to them.

The third and fourth segments of the show were by local BC designers. Nicole Bridger’s women’s line was beautiful. Most of her pieces were made from a soft, draping material that hugged curves at all the right places, giving very playful and feminine silhouettes. The colour palette she used was mostly pastels such as sage green, though some of her evening wear used darker colours, like teal. Her line was very business casual and very wearable.

I loved Drew William’s line. He experimented with both form-fitting and free-flowing pieces, and the result was very pleasing. His women’s line was very romantic and dreamy. Neutral colours like beige, paired with the sunken eyes and hollow cheeks of the models—made the models look like fashionable zombies. I did like his men’s line more. One piece had a peacoat with buttons increasing in distance as they moved up the front, and the bottoms were like a combination of harem pants and suit pants.

The last two segments of the fashion show were kind of bizarre. “Voicelessness” consisted of just three pieces—two of which were evidently poorly made. Adding gaps inbetween strips of cloth doesn’t make you a designer, it makes you look messy.

“What are you wearing” was a line designed to make you imagine if you had to wear the garbage you threw out on your body. I enjoyed this section. It was innovative; a dress was made entirely of old coffee cups cut right down the middle, and it looked really avant-garde and not trashy (excuse the pun). A dress made with old ties is kind of cheating, but I turned a blind eye. The men’s outfits, however, were extremely lazy. Sticking a few things onto a shirt doesn’t really count as “wearing your garbage.”

All in all, this fashion show was saved only by the two local designers’ lines. Yes, they had a runway in the water. Yes, it was run by over 70 student volunteers. Yes, it was a sold out show. But I felt it was overall very sloppy. There were hardly any costume changes, yet the models couldn’t get themselves onto the runway in time. The lines by the Emily Carr and UBC students were poorly thought out and incoherent.

Though I did take away one lesson from this fashion show: when the time comes when we have to wear garbage because we have destroyed all the textiles in the world, women will fare so much better than the men. And I take heart in knowing that.

Proceeds from the IRSA fashion show go to next year’s show.

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