Fashion Merchandising and Design students transformed recycled materials into runway looks during this year’s Sustainable Fashion Show, which was led by a week of festivities promoting creativity and sustainability on campus.
The week began with a kickoff event featuring Nevena Christi, owner of Rocketbuster Boots, a handmade custom boot company based in El Paso, Texas. Christi shared insights into her career and designs behind custom footwear worn by celebrities like Taylor Swift and Ethan Hawke, giving students a glimpse into the fashion industry.
Additional events throughout the week allowed students to explore fashion in various ways. These events emphasized how students can intersect environmental awareness with their creativity. The Aggie Fashion Club collaborated with Depop NMSU to form a pop-up thrift shop called “The Aggie Thrift” on April 21. The following day, the club hosted “Flowers and Fashion”, an Earth Day event where students planted seeds and customized T-shirts.
“[These events] have a big impact on our community, almost like a hopeful view for the future that there are students in different places putting in effort and reaching to be part of the fashion industry,” senior designer Daniela Carranco said.
The week built up anticipation for the annual Sustainable Fashion Show, held on Thursday, April 23. Here, student designs took the center stage under this year’s theme: “Reimagine.”
As the runway show approached, the energy from the week’s events carried into the Aggie Lounge at Corbett Center Student Union, where audience members gathered for the main event. Presented by the Student Association of Fashion Merchandising and Marketing, the show focused on the student-designed collections of sustainability in style.
The runway featured garments made mostly from repurposed and recycled materials, ranging from plastic bags and bottles to Pokémon cards and paper. Each design reflected the resourcefulness and creativity of the designers and how they took on the challenge of transforming everyday materials into art. Students worked to embrace the idea of giving clothes a second life.
“Many times, we have to experiment,” Carranco said. “But I feel like what really matters is that if you care so much about your design, you’ll find a way to create it.”
To help bring the designs to life, student models walked in their one-of-a-kind pieces. Through pops of colors and various textures, these models helped bring the audience into the meaning behind the looks and what the designer intended to communicate.
“Seeing that people have an idea, start with a vision, and then develop that vision, it’s inspiring,” Thahec Arreola said, a model for the event. “It gives you a whole other appreciation for this beautiful art form.”
“Reimagine” reflected the importance of sustainability through fashion and highlighted the direction the fashion industry should be moving toward. Student designers were able to step into the fashion industry in an impactful and resourceful way, showing the audience that anyone could do the same by rethinking how everyday materials can be transformed into something meaningful.
“You can bring your garment to life, you just gotta put your mind to it,” Vice President and senior designer Triny Rivera said. “You strive for perfection, but it ends up being messy. Sometimes that’s the best part.”
Aggie Fashion Week reinforced the idea that fashion can be both expressive and environmentally responsible. Through their creativity, student-designers continue to inspire others to think more critically about sustainability while imagining what the future of fashion could look like.
