Expo 2003

Krista Tschetter

Krista Tschetter

Hollywood flair and rock star duds will flavor the annual apparel merchandising major-organized fashion show.

It will be a change from past years, which displayed sportier, more mainstream clothing like Abercrombie&Fitch.

About 20 different volunteer models will show off looks in categories that include rock, bright colors, vintage and classic black and white.

“It reaches all the different levels of fashion that are available,” said apparel merchandising major Grace Pellow.

She is part of the promotions class that requires organizing the production.

The students put in about 50 hours outside of class throughout the semester.

The looks for the show were created by other members of the class from what they found in fashion magazines.

They then traveled to Sioux Falls to try and find what they needed.

Pellow said approximately $20,000 in clothes will be borrowed from different retail stores in Sioux Falls, including BCBG, Express, The Limited and Hot Topic.

Loni Carmichael and junior Krista Bakke were also part of the class. They work as part of the promotions committee, while other students are divided among merchandising, modeling and stage managing.

“I think it was a good experience … to work with one another,” said Carmichael.”If there was clashing we just had to count to ten … it works well with your communication skills.”

The students also had to use their own credit cards as collateral, which they think will increase how much attention they pay to security.

“We learned to take responsibility for things,” said Bakke.

The merchandise will be picked up this coming Wednesday, and that night they’ll have their first dress rehearsal. The students said it may be a little hectic, having to keep track of everything and make sure all the sizes are correct. But they also consider the changes they made to be valuable.

“We sort of travelled across the spectrum, everything from punk rock to classical,” said Carmichael.

“It kind of pushes people to get out of their shell … in South Dakota it’s hard … work to see what’s really happening in New York, because it doesn’t happen here,” Bakke said.

Carmichael agrees.

“You really have to work to see what’s happening in fashion.”

The runway show begins at 2 p.m. on March 28 in the student union’s Volstorff Ballroom. Admission is $2 with student id and $4 for adults. The show is part of the Family and Consumer Sciences annual exposition, which includes exhibits from consumer and food sciences, hospitality, human development, early childhood development and apparel merchandising majors.

The “Lights, Camera, Action” expo takes place at various locations on the second floor of the NFA building.