In Mount Laurel, about 100 people gathered Wednesday on the RCBC campus to view fashions designed by students and professionals.
MOUNT LAUREL — Ask the leaders of Rowan College at Burlington County’s fashion club if style and design bring people together, and they’ll agree.
“Come one night and celebrate fashion,” said Ariel S. Dennis, a fashion design student. “Everyone likes clothes.”
“Everyone wears clothes,” added Au’Set Wright, a graphic design and art major at RCBC.
Their club drew a crowd diverse in age, background and RCBC affiliation to its Wednesday evening “Fashion Noir” show in Mount Laurel. By the 7 p.m. showtime, about 100 people had gathered in the Student Success Center to watch models show off the designs of seven students, two professionals and the campus bookstore.
“I wanted it to be community like, invite your mom’s friends, invite your friends’ friends so that they can know what RCBC is doing and get involved,” said Dennis, 19. “Also helping admissions, getting students interested in fashion design, graphic design, entertainment, communications, whatever, so at least they know ‘If I come here, I can use my skills in an event like this.’”
Club co-leader Wesley Blunt, a 20-year-old communications major and Lumberton resident, said the event was one of a few RCBC attractions that was totally student-led. He, Dennis and Wright said they planned the show and grew as leaders with guidance from their advisor, Danielle Epps, and from the Atlantic County-based organization Atlantic City Fashion Week.
The latter’s approach to fashion first inspired Dennis to hold a fashion club event on campus.
“It was a lot of black designers, and they’re not really put on a platform,” the 19-year-old Hainesport resident said. “So I thought, ‘Let’s do that here.’”
Showcasing the work of multicultural designers on an equal platform led to the show’s inclusion in 2019 Black History Month programming from RCBC’s African American Cultural Committee, students said. With everything from sporty designs to business casual on the runway, designers offered something for everyone, and Dennis said the club wanted the show to have appeal beyond fellow students.
Wright, 19, said arts and culture on campus get less exposure than STEM, but that events like “Fashion Noir” can help raise that profile.
“I feel like we, it was RCBC’s first annual fashion show not for the fashion department … not dealing with a class, not for a grade,” the Pemberton resident said. “So I feel like it let other students know, ‘Hey, we can do stuff like this on campus.’ We don’t just have to sit here and do work and go about our day.”
Dennis added that they wanted the event to have broad appeal in part to inspire more student involvement on campus.
“One of the big problems was that RCBC isn’t a big school. There’s a lot of people that don’t want to go to clubs because they want to work, and they want to do that,” she said. “That takes away some of our people who come to certain things, so just opening it up to everyone — I think diversity is awesome anyway, of course — but opening it up to everyone could also help bring in more people and make everyone feel welcome.”
Student and alumni designers featured in the show included Chaquina Bearfield, Nya Bobein, Gul Bolukbas, Melissa Davis, Ariel S. Dennis, Rachel Estaline, and Malik Fisher.
Two professional designers, Don Miller and Jamaal Spence, also sent models down the runway.
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