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26th Campus Couture stitched in success

Fashion mavens, designers and supporters took over the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on Friday for the 26th annual Cal State Long Beach Campus Couture fashion show.

Pressure ran high moments before the event’s start as 17 designers pulled their final looks together backstage. Unlike in years past, this Campus Couture showcased a number of wearable pieces, which translated functional fashion that virtually anyone can embody.

“There’s a big mix this year with a wear-ability factor,” said Jessica Griffith, a senior fashion merchandising major and public relations coordinator for the event.

After a year of planning, the Carpenter Center was transformed into a high stakes runway show where fashion moguls as well as supporters filled almost every seat. Roughly 100 outfits were strutted down the white runway as music blasted throughout the show. Large screens on both sides of the runway live streamed each model walking down so the audience could capture each look in detail.

Designers shined in their own unique aesthetic, such as senior textile and fashion design major Karlee Christiansen, whose collection was inspired by the City of Los Angeles.

“I focused on LA style in the beauty and beast of it,” Christiansen said. “It’s glamorous with a lot of silks but with leather blends to make it edgy.”

Christiansen said her collection has a piece for any event of the day, from casual wear to date nights.

An eye-catching dress that took many helping hands backstage to send off the runway came from Jocelyn Chan, a senior fashion and textile design major. Chan said the dress weighed more than 30 pounds and the model had to sit under the wire framing of the skirt.

Chan said she found inspiration for her collection from Andy Warhol and pop art.

“Fashion has always been so serious, and I want to show it can be fun,” Chan said.

Not only were the designers feeling the true-to-form fashion show experience, but there were also a number of awards up for grabs, the most coveted of which was the “Best Collection” presented by Project Ethos. Jennifer Luong, senior textile and fashion design major, was the recipient of the prestigious title at the end of the night and will show her collection at Los Angeles Fashion Week in October.

From what began as a small-time production in a conference room in 1988 with Suzanne Marshall, director and faculty adviser for the fashion merchandising and design program, and eight design students, Campus Couture has become one of the largest student-run events on the West Coast.

Notable sponsors of the event included JustFab, Toni and Guy, Fuller Street Productions, among others.

Despite the awards and accolades from post-production, some of the designers feel that presenting their collections is a feeling of immeasurable relief and success.

“I’m really excited because I feel like my collection is exactly the way I wanted it to be so I’m pretty proud of it,” Chan said.

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