Department of Design undergraduates showcase fashion expertise
Amidst the endless array of activities to experience on Picnic Day, a student-featured fashion show is one of the best. Put on by the UC Davis Fashion & Design Society, the annual show will be held twice in the ARC Ballroom, first at 11 a.m. and once more at 1:30 p.m. This year, the theme of the show is “Impression/Expression,” leaving student designers to interpret their own experiences into their collections as they see fit.
“As a textiles major, it’s really nice to see the fashion community being showcased at such a big event like Picnic Day,” said Mandie Simpson, a second-year textiles and clothing major.
Throughout the runway show, garments created and styled by students of the Department of Design’s “Signature Collection” class will in turn be modeled by other fellow students of UC Davis. Among the many student designers involved in the show, Sharon Zhu and Pooja Morari, both fourth-year design majors, are the creators of a bridal collection titled “Ina Fusion.”
“This is my first time participating in the show, however, I have been to the fashion show as an audience [member in the past],” Zhu said via email. In contrast, this will be Morari’s second time participating in the show. She designed a collection for the single garment competition in the year prior.
The title of Morari and Zhu’s collection was inspired by the heritage of the two designers, with “Ina” being a combination of the names of India and China. “Ina Fusion” consists of six garments, two that represent each country respectively and four that embrace the fusion of India and China together. In highlighting the traditional aspects of the two countries, Morari and Zhu also hope to include some contemporary style into their designs.
“Our collection serves as an expression of interracial marriages and the growing diversity of our world, in which all our ideas, values and experiences are constantly being reshaped,” Morari and Zhu said via email.
As a bridal collection, the two undergraduate designers hope to express the cultural tradition inherently embodied within the fabrics and silhouettes of each culture’s customary wedding wear.
“We hope to utilize the fashion show as a platform to introduce our future collaboration in developing a fashion line inspired by this fusion collection and later expanding into other garment styles,” Morari and Zhu said.
Tickets are $12 presale and $15 at the door. For more information, visit the design department’s website.
Written by: Sydney Odman — arts@theaggie.org
