Students showcase music-themed designs in 19th annual FACS Fashion Show

A group of 18 student designers featured 28 designs on Saturday night in the 19th annual FACS Fashion Show hosted by Liberty University’s Department of Family & Consumer Sciences. This year’s theme, “Musicology,” inspired students to choose a music genre for their fashions. While designer senior Anna Blass won Best in Show for her three garments inspired by ballads and sung poetry, many students received accolades for their creative and innovative designs.

Kim Cashman, assistant professor for FACS, was the faculty advisor for the student-run event. She said the students chose their leadership team last summer, and she and the student director, fashion design senior Marie-Valerie Zappardino-Johnson, worked together to design the theme. In the fall, they held information sessions for interested designers and auditions for models.

Over the next several months, students worked diligently to put together stunning designs that were all inspired by various ages and genres of music. Cashman said the show’s designers came from different majors, but it was a great opportunity for fashion design students to expand on their résumés.

“God created color and design, and that can be woven into fabrics and (fashion) designing. Students were given the task of (figuring out) how music glorifies God. How does your design and the way you work and live your life and the way you construct what you are creating, how does that glorify God?” Cashman said. “We really want them to be prepared to go into this industry because you have to be strong; there’s a lot of evil. We want them to be successful as designers and models as long as they are grounded in their faith and know who they are in Christ.”

During her opening remarks, Zappardino-Johnson, who has been a designer for the show the past two years, explained the power of music and how it relates to fashion.

“Music transcends language, transcends culture, (and) breaks rules,” she said. “Music and fashion alike are deeply ingrained in human culture; both have grown, shaped, and formed crucial moments of culture that influence modern day.”

“Much like a song, every outfit is composed with basic instruments, basic articles of clothing,” she added. “But it’s about how we put it all together; we meticulously curate and craft our outfits to fit our personality, to tell others a story about ourselves. We are the composers of our own wardrobe.”

The show’s judges included three professional models: Jon Hipp, Will Montejo, and Loni Mbele-Phillips from Models for Christ, an organization that provides support and community in the fashion industry through outreach, Bible studies, and discipleship all over the world. Hipp said they enjoy partnering with Liberty.

“We love coming up and pouring into the fashion students, the students modeling in the show, and just being involved as support and showing them that there are believers in the industry, and they won’t be alone,” he said.

Blass, the Best in Show winner whose designs were modeled by students Charles Gilman, Emma-Lee McGill, and Jaida Farber, was inspired by her love of ballads when she chose her music genre. She selected a different type of ballad for each of her three garments: historical ballads, love ballads, and legendary ballads.

“The fashion show is a great résumé builder. Just learning to design under guidelines is really cool,” said Blass, a fashion design student. “I was very lucky to come into Liberty with a lot of knowledge, but there were gaps, so there were times when (Professor) Cashman would be able to help me, and that was really good.”

Blass said through her degree and events like the fashion show, she has learned that Christians are needed within the fashion industry.

“Fashion is an area in need of Champions for Christ; we are soldiers for God, and we are called to the battlefield,” she said. “The fashion industry is really an area where we can step into evil territory, bring a light to it, and say, ‘This is what God allowed me to do, not what I did.’ And that’s something that’s unusual for the fashion industry, because everyone is trying to promote themselves.”

Cinematic arts sophomore Alex Cahill modeled pre-law sophomore Jackson Whitehurst’s EDM-themed design, which Whitehurst said was particularly inspired by the EDM group Daft Punk. Cahill said the event taught him diligence and has made him consider pursuing modeling professionally.

“Seeing everything come together at the end of the year has been fun,” Cahill said. “The adrenaline is what I like the most. Just being out there in front of a bunch of people, your heart rate is jacked; it’s fun.”

Whitehurst’s design won Best Use of Texture. His design had ribbed fabric and hexagonal designs with a raised texture, utilizing aspects of 3D design and printing.

“As a (future) professional, it’s really helped me know how to meet deadlines because there were progress checks where I had to have a certain amount done and be ready to present,” Whitehurst said.

Mbele-Phillips, the collegiate ambassador for Models for Christ and leader of its Miami chapter, said the group aligns with Liberty’s mission of Training Champions for Christ.

“We wish that before we got into the modeling and fashion industry, we had someone teach us to be pillars for Christ within it; we figured it out after the fact,” she said. “I thought, ‘How can I equip the next generation?’ Let me start at a place (like Liberty) that is already like-minded in their pursuit of raising up soldiers for the army of the Lord.”