Black Student Union continues the party from last year with its second annual fashion show

After the success of its first fashion show last year, the Black Student Union is teaming up again for another night of fashion and entertainment.

“I was a model last year and it was just such a blast,” said Danielle Taitt, ’16, one of the club members and model for last year. “It was so much fun dressing up and walking on stage, acting like we own the stage, cat walking and just the whole 9 yards. It was just so much fun, so I wanted to be more involved in planning it this year.”

This year’s fashion show is Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. in Lamberton Hall.

The idea for the fashion show was brought up last year during an executive board meeting. They planned the fashion show in only a week, and even with such short notice it was a success of roughly 30 models and 90 guests.

BSU president, Tiffany Montgomery, ’16, has tried reaching out to everyone at Lehigh about the upcoming fashion show to make this year’s event even more of a success. She wants as many people as possible to be involved, including students from other universities.

Aside from the Lehigh community, Montgomery has reached out to DeSales University, Cedar Crest College and Moravian College for student models, and they will have Couture Hair Salon doing the models’ hair for free.

“One of the best parts about the fashion show (last year) was that you saw people from different schools and from the outside, and that was really cool,” said Ornella Ngounou, ’16, club member and model from last year. “They were even helping with the models, like dressing them up and everything. So it really showed collaboration.”

Last year the theme for the fashion show was an “all white affair,” so this year they are making it an “all black affair.” While guests will be invited to wear black, the models will not. Presently, they have come up with 13 categories that the models will be split into, and each category has a specific theme.

“So far we have college pride category, a date night category, so people can dress up or dress down, a casual category and more,” Montgomery said. “It’s just going to be little fun things like that because everyone loves dressing up.”

As of right now, the rest of the categories are: culture, gala wear, club night, all white, winter/summer, business chic, street wear, current trends, ‘MoCos’ and all black.

Last year the members who helped plan the fashion show contacted Loose Threads Boutique, who donated two or three dresses, but this year their goal is to reach out to more local businesses to see if they will donate outfits for the night. Otherwise, models are expected to bring their own outfits.

“One thing that I’m really excited about for this year’s fashion show is the African Caribbean Club,” Ngounou said. “They were going to do a fashion show but then decided not to because we were, so we’re doing a culture section so that people can get to wear traditional clothing from their culture.”

Shanice Marrow, ’18, a member of the Black Student Union, started the Fashion Club, so they’re also collaborating with those members to help with the models with their makeup and clothing.

“We’re just really excited, especially to see it all come together,” Montgomery said. “Finding outfits will be easy. We just need the models.”

Model rehearsal dates are Oct. 8 and Oct. 15. If anyone is interested in modeling, contact Tiffany Montgomery at [email protected].