UA Trend brings back UA Fashion Week after four-year hiatus

Kayla Linderman from El Inde Arizona

Photo by Kayla Linderman, Pictured: Grayson Hodge, president of UA Trend at McClelland Park

The University of Arizona’s fashion club, UA Trend, had its runway show composed of student and community designers at McClelland Park on April 29.

The event comes after taking a four-year break due to the pandemic and not being able to host it on campus.

All four designers showcased their self-made designs on models who volunteered for this event. Some models were UA students that were a part of UA Trend.

Grayson Hodge, president of UA Trend, hosted this event by welcoming each designer before their collections and introducing them to the crowd.

The show lasted little over an hour and was held outside of McClelland Park around the circular stage, underneath the towering palm trees. 

Models walked from McClelland Park and circled the cemented platform before stopping and striking a pose. All of the collections were presented at the finale of the show with each of their designers and stylists.

Designer Ray Rayburn, 30, discovered this opportunity when they were at St. Philip’s
Plaza and met someone from UA Trend who had a booth and mentioned the show.

Rayburn takes inspiration from historical fashion and is finding new ways for gender to be implemented into design.

“I had just been thinking how do you solve this problem of … making a world that has
objects that are more gender-inclusive… There’s no right answer and I think that’s what is so
beautiful and I think it’s really fun,” they said. “Because you get to explore and combine
different things in so many different ways and nobody can say that’s the wrong thing of doing it
because gender, you can play with it.”

Student-designer and UA pre-business student Joy Chepoghisho, 19, presented her
collection “A Language of Flowers,” which was inspired by early summer and late spring.

Chepoghisho did this while taking 19 credits this semester and originally designed around
11 pieces for the collection but was only allowed eight because of her time slot.

Her favorite design was her closing number that was a rose flower embroidered skirt with
a matching bra top that had attached arm sleeves. It was modeled by UA student Mia Jade, 19.

“I spent seven hours changing the bra. I pulled like two all-nighters just to finish the entire look and I was so happy when it was done,” Chepoghisho said.

Jade volunteered to model for UAFW after seeing a casting call on their Instagram.

“The experience was nerve-wracking but extremely exciting, as well. I was most excited
about wearing the outfit that Joy designed and watching the other collections. Watching a
fashion show and witnessing amazing creativity is always extremely fulfilling,” Jade said.

Other designers such as Zuleyma Zepeda and Candice Mason showed their creations on the runway. LuisPablo Padres is the creative director for UAFW and is on the executive board for UA Trend. 

Maddie Roy, a 19-year-old UA law major attended the fashion show as a guest. Roy is a
member of the student-run fashion media club, Haus of Style. The club is recognized by the UA
Norton School of Human Ecology and will be recognized by the university this fall.

“I definitely just wanted to see fashion and the designers who are here at the UA because
I feel like a lot of the time when you’re walking to class, we’re not always dressed up in the
styles that we love so it’s really cool to come to an event where you can see everyone’s vision
and stylistic differences,” Roy said.

UA Trend plans on hosting future fashion events including thrift pop-ups. The club hopes
to make UAFW an annual event.

Photo by Kayla Linderman, Pictured: Mia Jade, Designer: Joy Chepoghisho

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