CTAHR NEWS
4 May 2023

UH Fashion Goes Supersonic

UH Fashion Goes Supersonic

The 57th annual UH Manoa fashion show was held at the Hawaii convention center on April 30 and, by all accounts, it was an appreciable success. Nine seniors and twelve juniors formed the largest group of student designers at a UH fashion show in over 14 years, showcasing a solid year of hard work on collection concepts, themes, color pallets, and fabrics (Wach a video).

 

The theme, “Supersonic,” was chosen to highlight the extraordinary engagement of the participants, especially the seniors, who came to the project intending to make a meaningful, lasting impression through their efforts. The show was particularly noteworthy since the COVID safeguards that hampered previous events were no longer in place and the venue was sold out well in advance. This year, fashion was clearly able to return to UH at supersonic velocity.

 

As with any hugely successful venture, this year’s event was a broad-based, sincere team effort. There was a special presentation of the work of Dr. Ju Young Kang’s students in 2D/3D virtual fashion design, which added dimensionality to the main event and gave the audience a broad perspective on the field. Not to be outdone, the tight-knit student production team also contributed significantly, supported by the club, Innovators of Fashion and Stole Society, using the skills and insights acquired in FDM
430: Fashion Show Production.

 

Under the capable mentorship of Dr. Minako McCarthy, the collections were each very different, the culmination of years of study and market analysis, including swimwear, menswear, and unisex designs. The designers brought their firsthand internship experience to bear and combined swimwear with town wear as well as men’s and women’s wear.

 

Given the design class’ emphasis on individual uniqueness and inclusion, the show also presented the widest possible range of ethnicities, body types, and genders. And the collection titles gave some indication of the sheer creativity in play. Names like
“The Evening of the 7th,” “The Sky Inside the Jewelry Box,” “OG Butterflies,” and “Regency Reimagining” suggested a spectrum of moods and images, evoking the multicultural diversity of Hawaii and the students who come here to study the art and business of fashion.


In the program booklet, Dr. Thao Le, chair of Family and Consumer Sciences, pointed out that the Fashion Design and Merchandising program can trace its origin to the beginning of the university in 1907 through the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR). As the inheritors of this 116-year-old tradition, the current student designers, production specialists, and models in this year’s show have placed their work in conversation with earlier eras and paradigms in a way that will inform future fashion students and memorialize the styles of 2023.

--Michael Davis

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