The doors of Alumni Hall opened at 5pm for the annual IU Fashion Design B.A. Fashion Show on April 14th.

The fashion show is produced by students involved in the Retail Studies Organization, and it took place at Alumni Hall inside the Indiana Memorial Union building.

Students in this organization are granted the opportunity to create a mini collection to establish their brands pursuing fashion design.

The runway began at 6pm and there was an immense crowd of former B.A. students, faculty, university peers, and families in support of displaying the various collections.
There was a total of 27 designers’ collections being showcased by over 130 models.

Isa Runberg posing before IU Fashion Show 2023.

Alexis Woods posing before IU Fashion Show 2023.

Riley John posing before IU Fashion Show 2023.

Drew Rhodes posing before IU Fashion Show 2023.

Gabryale Parks posing before IU Fashion Show 2023.

Sami Whitlock prepares her models before entering the runway.

The annual Fashion Design B.A. Runaway Fashion Show kicked off on Friday April 14th at Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union.

The B.A. Fashion Design students from the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design developed and designed their own spring collections.

One of the students, Sami Whitlock, produced her collection, La Gala de Las Espadas. Las Gala de Las Espadas means “to show the elegance of souls, good or bad, they all have a sense of decorum and royalty to them,” she stated.

Sami Whitlock and her models take a picture before walking the runway.

Sami Whitlock, a senior designer studying at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, spoke on her practices leading up to this important moment of her fashion design studies.

“Espadas are spirits who have lost their core, their soul, in an act to preserve what they’ve lost they use their will to push on,” Whitlock mentioned.

This collection was inspired by Espada from the anime Bleach. Her desire long-term is to keep designing and achieving.

Her collection included Riley John, Alexis Woods, Isa Runberg, Drew Rhodes, Gabryale Parks modeling five-out-of-six outfits in the collection. Her collection consisted of those who are interested in pursuing a modeling career or out of appreciation for her. In this spring collection, there are two masks represented on two of the models, Drew Rhodes and Alexis Woods.

Designer, Sami Whitlock, went on to discuss her long process of designing her looks from scratch.

“I was emotional when I fully finished my first pair of pants. I started them from scratch and did not stop until they were done, totaling 14 hours, and I cried when I finished them,” Whitlock said.

Whitlock expressed complications she encountered throughout her process of sewing the pieces together.

“Everything went smoothly up until the final week, which is not the time to be having mess up, you know? I had to completely change the pants for one of my models because the waist band was too small, so I changed my pants into a skirt.”

From early experiences with sewing in elementary to her senior year at Indiana University Bloomington, Sami has overcome barriers of becoming a fashion designer. She is currently in the process of submitting applications to some big-name companies within the fashion industry.