RUNWAY bringing fashion to Champaign-Urbana

After taking nearly an hour to assemble, the seven piece IKEA clothing rack started to collapse. Instead of letting the rack hit the floor, four girls rushed to the site to rescue a garment bag hanging from the frame. The bag held a luxurious ruffled yellow dress designed by an upcoming Chicago designer, named Tatyana Merenyuk.. Tatyana’s work is defined by its playful textures, feminine colors, and intricate embellishments. Her designs will be featured in the Runway group’s first annual “Pure Euphoria Fashion Show” which will be held at the Krannert Art Museum this Saturday night.

“The goal of Runway is to show fashion as a dynamic art form on the U of I campus,” said co-founder, Aramide Odusanya. “We want students to recognize fashion as art.”
Odusanya is a sophomore economics major aspiring to become a fashion designer after her time at UIUC. While wearing her own design – a high waist satin skirt and white blouse – she explained that she was surprised to see that the university did not offer a fashion group or organization.

“There was nothing on campus to serve students, like me, who love fashion and want to go into the fashion industry,” said Odusanya. “I remember walking around on Quad Day looking for a club like Runway, and when I didn’t find one, I decided to start my own.”

Pooja Desai, co-founder and president of Runway, empathized with Odusanya and together, the two fashion lovers founded the Runway group. Desai is a sophomore journalism student, who hopes to use her experience with Runway to become a writer for a fashion magazine.

Their first runway event was the “Green House Fashion Show” at the Illini Union last semester, which showed designs made entirely out of recyclable material on an 80 foot runway, including duct tape, newspaper, and old clothes. The show was sold out.

“We didn’t anticipate doing so well since it was our first show, but the students really loved it,” said Desai. “I guess they’d been waiting a long time to see a legitimate fashion show on the U of I campus.”

“Pure Euphoria” will focus on showing work from established designers in the Chicago area. It will feature collections from artists such as Tatyana Merenyuk, Tel Aviv Couture, Lara Miller, Annie Ku, and Tonya Gross.

The founders are most excited about Tel Aviv Couture, which is a new company that represents fifteen Israeli designers based in Chicago. Desai described their collection as urban, edgy and innovative. “It’s bold, yet wearable – It’s wearable art,” she said.

Making final preparations for the show dressed in a pink and blue plaid dress, Desai ran to the collapsed clothing rack. “It’s always what you don’t anticipate will go wrong that goes wrong,” she said. Turning to Odusanya, Desai suggested using duct tape to mend the broken frame. “We should have plenty from the last show,” she joked. “Do you get it? I don’t think she gets it.”
Preparations for the show have been very labor intensive. Aside from assembling clothing racks, Runway members have been spending the last three months training their models, contacting designers, finding a venue, advertising, and fundraising for the event.

“It definitely takes a lot of time out of school work,” said Odusanya. “The people in our group are very dedicated.”

Sophomore opera major, Sam Dewese is in charge of training the models for the event. “Originally, were looking for girls that wouldn’t fall over in heels,” said Dewese. “We were also looking for girls who were sample size, or close to sample size.”

Sample size is between a size two and a size four when a model is 5 feet 8 inches tall. “It’s hard to find a girl with those dimensions,” said Dewese.

Because of his experience as an opera singer, Dewese understands the dynamics of movement on stage. “You want a pretty girl, but you want a girl who’s confident, who’s poised and who learns fast,” he said. “This is important because the models are bringing everyone’s work to life.”
After Desai duct taped the IKEA clothes rack together, she let out a sigh of relief. “I’m not stressed,” she said. “It’s just stuff – there’s a lot of stuff, but it always pulls together.”

The “Pure Euphoria Fashion Show” will be held at the Krannert Art Museum this Saturday night. Though admission is free, the group recommends a five dollar donation to the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club. There will be first come, first serve seating in the museum’s first floor exhibit between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. There will be a wine bar and free hors d'oeuvres will be served before and after the show in the museum’s main lobby. The group recommends that everyone come in formal dress.

The “Pure Euphoria Fashion Show” will showcase four different collections and 52 pieces from Chicago designers. Information about buying the pieces will be given upon request from a Runway group member.

“We’re bringing Fashion Week to Champaign-Urbana,” said Desai. “A lot of people think that when you are selecting an outfit to go to class or somewhere to be seen it’s just that. When people see that there are weeks spent in these major metropolitan areas entirely on the production of clothes, it shows that fashion is an art form.”

“There are more to clothes than fabric being draped on bodies,” Dewese added.