Correction: An initial version of this story contained an incorrect date for the event of March 18. The event was on April 18 and has been altered.
A pop-up tent stood out amongst the cloudy gray weather with colorful racks of bathing suits, tote bags, scrunchies, pins and bandannas for sale accompanied by soft indie music at the Fashion Club pop-up on Tuesday, April 18.
As a tribute to Earth Day coming up this week, fashion club members wanted to express their creativity and support of Earth Day through accessories and bags as well as expose the fashion department, and club events to students not involved with the fashion department.
The LBCC bistro located next door to the fashion club pop-up helped with foot traffic as students were able to buy pastries and drinks while they shopped.
The artistic texts and graphic designs of earth-theme images on white tote bags were a fan favorite amongst the fashion club members, as well as the event coordinator and fashion design and merchandising professor Chantel Bryant.
“ I love the tote bags, because two students designed the artwork and the fashion club voted which artwork they wanted to go with,” fashion design professor Bryant said.
Bryant then stressed the importance of earth day and reflected that belief by mentioning the prevention of clothing going to the dump by taking clothing donations instead
“All of the fabrics we used here except for the swimwear are all donated upcycled fabric. The tote bags are recycled cotton and 100% organic. So we are just trying to educate students on earth day and sustainability,” stated Bryant.
“The swimwear is sampled from the fashion industry and if we hadn’t taken the donation then it would have ended up in the landfill. So we are preventing fabrics and garments from going into the landfill,” Bryant added.
The assortment of bathing suits was very popular amongst customers who were browsing. One LBCC student couldn’t help but gush about all the colorful patterned bathing suits but was slightly disappointed with the sizing.
“The bathing suits were very nice and colorful but since I’m on the bigger side I didn’t find my size. I would love to see more diversity in sizes,” said LBCC student Caroline Hunter.
The swimsuits ranged from extra small to extra large and were sent from a local swim manufacturer. However, this made it so fashion club members had no control over the sizes available at the stand.
When asked why fashion is important to individuals, fashion club members insisted that fashion is a passionate form of self-expression.
“I think fashion is important to express yourself through clothes and you can express your culture, pop culture, or just anything artistic that you want people to know about yourself,” said fashion merchandise student Krystal Gallego.
“It is important to have this pop-up to expose the fashion department. I feel like people don’t know there is a fashion department here. We are a small old building,” Gallego said.