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Free enterprise students host spring fashion show

16 UA students strut their stuff on the UA Mall

As the temperature rises, clothes come off.

This was apparent as the attire for yesterday's fashion show on the UA Mall opened with a display of six bathing suit ensembles.

The show was co-organized by the University of Arizona Students in Free Enterprise and the Retail Association organizations. The event was also featured as part of the Spring Fling kick-off week.

"The fashion show concept was a collective idea by the students in SIFE," said club secretary Mike Reyes, a retailing and consumer studies senior.

"Our goal (as a club) is to provide college students the best opportunity to gain leadership, teamwork and communication skills while learning, teaching and practicing the principles of free enterprise," he added.

The event was organized by retail and consumer studies seniors Lauren Ariko and Shanti Newman, retail and consumer studies juniors Josie Zukowski-Saust and Terry Springer, and psychology senior Susan Holguin.

The organizations held a university-wide volunteer model search through listerv e-mails and advertisements.

"Almost anyone who tried out basically made it," said SIFE president Jennifer McAllister, a retailing and consumer studies senior. "We had a total of 11 girls and five guys who modeled in the show."

The show featured 44 outfits - on loan from the Tucson Mall Macy's department store - which fell under the categories of casual wear, bar attire, dinner wear, formal wear and swim wear.

The bar attire and dinner wear segments paired male and female models walking the catwalk, whereas the other fashion lines mostly featured the models walking alone.

Ensembles from the casual attire segment included khaki pants and shorts, while the evening and bar attire featured women in fringed Capri-style pants.

Donielle Evans, a finance and accounting freshman, modeled three outfits in the show.

"My favorite was the bar attire, it was a pair of grayish charcoal pants with a matching jacket and orange T-shirt with black boots," she said.

Evans has modeled in other events as well. Last year, she modeled for a Nordstrom store in Walnut Creek, Calif.

Some of the 16 volunteer models had modeled prior to the show, but some were first-timers, said Evans, also a SIFE member.

SIFE sponsored another fashion show last semester, featuring clothes loaned by Talbots and the Men's Warehouse.

The models chose the clothing they wore during the show, which featured several designers. The set used for the show was donated by the Home Depot.

The show had a good turn-out of spectators, said SIFE member Gina Damato, a retailing and consumer studies junior.

"I counted about 150 people who were watching, but it was probably more like 200," she said.

Fashion show spectators included UA men's basketball guard Gilbert Arenas. Arenas said he came to the event because he noticed a lot of girls were there but inevitably noticed the clothing as well.

"I liked the red silk shirt the best," said Arenas, an undeclared freshman. "The guy was pimping it. All the girls be loving it too."