Design students will showcase their personal fashion collections at Cal State Long Beach’s 24th annual Campus Couture Fashion Show on Wednesday, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Carpenter Performing Arts Center.
Campus Couture is the largest student-run event on campus, expecting 1,000 guests, 10 judges, and 30 professors and VIPs. Twenty-three senior designers, 30 junior designers and a few rising stars from the sophomore class were selected to be in this year’s production.
The Campus Couture organization has a new team of student coordinators each year who plan, develop and execute the show.
The 2011-12 coordinators are Cheryl Mounts, Emma Hancock, Aida Trujillo and Michelle Rahim.
On show day, the Carpenter Performing Arts Center will be transformed into a real-life runway, with volunteer models debuting the garment collections that the designers have been working on all year.
“This year’s theme is ‘Addams Family,’ which will be really cool to see,” said Michelle Rahim, Campus Couture’s design liaison. “The collections are very over-the-top with avant-garde designs by Basil Malsici and Vivian Chan.”
Each design student will create a compilation based on design guidelines from their classes.
Collections will include knit garments, a couture piece, an experimental item recycled from an old garment and up to six freestyle pieces.
The original designs stem from each fashion student’s personal style and are directed toward their desired market.
One senior designer, Mary Privett, gave insight to where she finds inspiration and the qualities that set her designs apart.
“I pull from all over, be it life experiences, research and my surroundings,” Privett said. “I make the clothes to fit the person, not the person to fit the clothes. It appeals to my target market hitting on personal preference and lifestyle.”
Over the yearlong creative process, however, designers can face challenges in deciding which direction to take their line.
“The biggest struggle was deciding on a theme for my collection in the beginning and sticking with it throughout,” Privett said. “It’s hard to stay cohesive with your theme, while trying to follow the project guidelines.”
The students’ finished products are displayed for the fashion merchandising and design department and professional judges from the fashion industry.
In the past, judges included fashion designers from Bravo’s “Project Runway” and the costume designer from the reality series “America’s Best Dance Crew.”
This year, Chelsea Handler’s assistant stylist Christina Pombo, and Mikey Koffman, an LA Fashion Week producer, will be judging.
For now, the Campus Couture team is putting the finishing touches on the show.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” Rahim said. “But it’s all very worth it.”