From 6:30 to 8:30 on January 18th the Black Student Union will be hosting their annual fashion show in the EXPO Hall. This year’s theme is Day and Night, enabling further variety between outfits connected with a fixed concept. Admission to the show is $5 and vendors from mostly black-owned businesses will also be present to sell and promote their products.
At least 54 outfits will be showcased with each model walking more than once. Other members of BSU are contributing with technical work behind the scenes: getting the models in order and helping them change between outfits, keeping lights and sound in check, and welcoming guests and directing VIPs to their front row seats.
VIP seats are available for $10 and only VIP guests will be taking home bags that include samples of different beauty items such as hair products. Last year’s show sold 20 VIP seats with roughly 100 seats available overall, this year’s numbers are expected to be similar. To transition from day to night there will an intermission halfway through the show with likely up to four performances.
BSU has organized their fashion show for years in hopes of “empowering black students and other students who support black students,” as defined by BSU President Julie Saint-Hillaire. For her Secretary, Laila Coutou, the show’s purpose is “freedom of expression and, even with all the hardship that comes with being a person of color, you are able to still have fun and express yourself.”
The models are free to personally design their outfits which may be inspired by professionals in the fashion industry, Pinterest boards, or based on their own style. So long as it fits the theme, it flies. “We were kind of bouncing around ideas,” says Saint-Hillaire of their Day and Night concept. “We were considering a few other ones [such as Met Gala and 2000’s] but I think that one was the most promising.”
Bethann Hardison, one of the first high-profile black models, remembers in an essay for Harper’s Bazaar that when she was walking the runway “they encouraged models to show their personality.” BSU brings back the idea of self-expression in their fashion shows by allowing models the creative liberty to dress how they want while having fun and empowering people of color.
Hardison started the Black Girls Coalition with models Naomi Campbell and Iman. She describes the first BCG fundraiser as “a community effort to have a good time.” This is directly echoed in the BSU board’s purpose for their fashion show. The board comments, “All the money that we make from the fashion show will go towards creating a safe environment for African American students and future BSU events.”
The New York Times conducted a study in 2021 examining black representation in fashion history. Of the nine major publications they looked at – InStyle, four international editions of Vogue, the American and British editions of Elle and Harper’s Bazaar – all aside from Vogue Italia and Harper’s Bazaar (which consistently incorporated black talent over time) showed the same results: The publications were surging with black representation during the six months following the summer of Black Lives Matter protests, in the six-month period after that the surge had lost momentum. BSU is an unwavering combatant of inconsistent representation as their shows are always teeming with black talent.
The Times also mentions, “Diverse [magazine] covers also do not always reflect a diverse staff… Long-term staffing changes take more time and effort.” The Black Student Union does not put up an act when it comes to inclusivity, giving anyone an opportunity to strut their stuff on the runway or work backstage.
Regrettably, Coutou will not be attending the fashion show, but she has been carefully tracking the prep work that goes into organizing it. Saint-Hillaire has also had a lot on her plate “while being president is stressful, it’s kind of fun to see the work that me and my board have put in because I know that they’re working really hard to get everything together and everything in order… I feel like the show is going to be fun, it’s going to be exciting and definitely entertaining. I definitely feel good about it, I really hope that everybody has fun!”
