Heather Mangan

Students were told to unleash their style Friday at the annual EXPO Fashion Show in the Performing Arts Center.

The show, entitled “Unleash Your Style”, was sponsored by the College of Family and Consumer Science and was organized by students of the fashion promotion and visual merchandising class.

Their advisor Nancy Lyons said she was pleased with the fashion show.

“I thought it went really well,” she said.

About 500 people attended the show.

Models showcased clothes from five different categories. The themes were: “Blast From the Past”, outfits inspired by other eras; “Fun in the Sun”, clothes intended for the beach; “Working’ Hard for the Money”, attire worn for work or school; “Carefree and Causal”, clothes for anytime; and “On the Red Carpet”, dresses, suits, and tuxes worn at formal events.

The clothes were borrowed from Abercrombie and Fitch, Banana Republic, BCBG, Express, Fergens, Gadzooks, Hot Topic, The Buckle, The Limited, and Vanity. Models walked down the runway to music provided by State-Tech.

Many of the audience members liked the outfits that were modeled and were inspired to go shopping.

Freshman Amanda Sorensen said that she would purchase many of the items featured in the show.

“There a lot of things I saw that I liked,” Sorensen said. “You don’t see clothes like that around here.”

Many audience members were impressed with the models and organizers of the show.

“I thought they did a good job,” said sophomore Connie Rislov.

Many of the models had fun participating in the show. They also enjoyed the perks of being a model.

“I liked being in front of the audience [and] getting some attention,” said senior Ryan Dominiack.

“I liked trying on the different clothes,” said sophomore Kory Nincehelser.

The models were asked to partake in the show by the students who prepared it. Being in the show, enlightened some models to the world of fashion.

Dominiack said he modeled a lot of clothes he would never have tried on before, but he liked many of the pieces he wore.

“I am actually buying one of my outfits,” he said.

In weeks leading up to the show, the organizers of the event were concerned about problems with the stage.

This was the first year the fashion show was in the lobby of the PAC and part of EXPO Day, a day when high school students can visit SDSU and see the programs it has to offer.

The students in charge of the stage had limited time to set the stage up and decorate it because many students were walking through the lobby all day due to EXPO Day. They also weren’t able to practice on the stage like in previous years.

However, things worked out in the end. Sophomore Hillary Hayes said they were able to put the stage together in the amount of allotted time. They were also able to put up a few decorations of netting and white lights.

“It worked out better than we thought,” Hayes said.

Some parts of the show went better this year than in previous years.

Lyons said they drastically cut down the number of outfits because there would be only one model on the stage instead of three. She said this gave her students more time to dress the models.

“I think, behind the scenes, things went more smoothly,” Lyons said.