By: Hafsa Sahki
When different areas of the arts come together to create a fun eventful show, what emerges is a diverse and exciting event. Style At Mac’s annual fashion show is back after a year-long absence.
This year’s team has focused on showcasing fashion from different countries, searching for local artists and reaching out to McMaster arts clubs.
Style At Mac was absent during the 2016-2017 academic year. As SAM Vice President of Events Naomi Doe explained, the previous executives graduated, so the team had to focus on hiring a new cohort for this year.
“The two best parts about coming back is that you get the platform that your priors have built, so you have that integration into that Mac community… the people who love your club and already know about your club, and then you get that fresh new start,” said Doe.
“With new executives [and] new photographers. It’s exciting building a club from the bottom [up]… we have a very adaptable structure and everyone has adaptable roles… it’s a very malleable club with a great history.”
This year’s theme, “statera”, was designed to give designers a flexible premise. Fashion artists are either trying conveying harmony with their outfits, or deliberately disrupting that balance with a mixture of patterns, colours and textures that work against each other.
“It doesn’t restrict your designers at all… [in this way], we can invite a wide variety of people with different backgrounds to that show,” explained Doe.
Selecting designers for the show can be very spontaneous. Doe explained that SAM reached out to Batik Batouk, a Ghanaian designer, after they were featured in the Silhouette.
SAM tries to integrate students into the fashion industry. To do this, the club reaches out to external designers, such as this year’s Thrifty Designer.
Various clubs within the McMaster community are also featured in the show like Threadwork, Mac Bangladesh and Mac Dance.
“We really wanted to have a club from Mac to represent themselves. Mac has a really great diverse community… [and] if we’re not showcasing the diversity in [what] Mac students wear, then we wouldn’t be doing our due justice,” said Doe.
“I love mixing and matching different areas of the arts together… when you pu them together I think it makes something really nice… it also adds to a student’s appeal to the show. Many students are interested in fashion, some are not committed to it fully, they just think about it a little bit, or they would like to… but when you have all these different kinds of performances, someone’s going to find an interest in your show in some way. You might know someone in Mac Dance, you might know someone in Mac Bangladesh… [or] you want to see some live music that day… that’s part of the reason that we wanted to incorporate all these arts into the show.”
This year’s show is partnered with Smiling Over Sickness, a student-run organization at McMaster that aims to raise funds for children living with an illness. All proceeds from the show go to the charity.
The show has ten segments, eight which showcase the designs, the other two broken up by a performance by Mac Dance and a cultural collection by Mac Bangladesh. SAM’s lookbook, popular collections showcased on their social media pages earlier this year, will start off the show, showcasing garments for all four seasons.
“Because we’re starting up [again this year], we’re very open to people coming to us. We love when people reach out to us and say ‘I have this talent, can you showcase it?’ If it fits, absolutely, yes, we’d love to feature you… we’re very happy to collaborate with them.”
Doe is excited to push the idea of involving different areas of the arts into the show, and is hoping to showcase a spoken word performance during the fashion segments in future.
The fashion show is on March 24 at the Hamilton Convention Centre. Tickets are $25 and $35 for a VIP Experience. Follow the club’s Facebook page @StyleAtMAC for more information.
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Katie Dhaliwal
The Silhouette
For all the fashion-forward students out there, there’s a new club in town. “Style at Mac”, is a website and student-run group that offers fashion lovers recognition on campus. Run by three McMaster students, Nancy Pham, Sherry Du, and Victor Cheng, SAM uses photography and fashion to share homegrown Hamilton styles with the student community. Du, a fourth-year Biology student, loves blogging, photography and making her own jewellery. Cheng, a third-year Multimedia and Communication Studies student, is an esteemed “iPhoneographer” and loves to design his own clothes in his spare time. The two sat down for an interview with LifeStyle to discuss their new initiatives and to give us the inside scoop on fall fashion trends.
First, it’s important to note that SAM isn’t just a fashion blog—according to Cheng and Du, it’s a venture that attempts to create an open forum for students interested in fashion to meet, discuss their passions and express themselves. Previously missing from campus, they felt that this club would try to fill that niche for fashion enthusiasts. This initial idea was what led to the creation of their new website and plans for an upcoming fashion show in March.
Their website displays some of these trends and focuses on students with outfits that SAM’s photographers have deemed eye-catching or original. They’re looking for “great patterns, a well put together outfit or even just a great choice of colour,” says Du. However, this isn’t to say that these outfits will be rated or dissected. Victor made it very clear that the aim of the website is to simply document and share new trends while creating a sense of pride in those that are photographed. Du added, “It’s important that we try to create an inclusive environment that showcases uniqueness on campus and the diversity of all students”.
Their plans for their first fashion show will also feature McMaster talent by showcasing the work of student designers as well as local, independent clothing boutiques to support our surrounding community.
Only one month into the semester and SAM has already picked out some fall trends emerging on campus. Cheng mentions vintage clothing and styles from the 80s and 90s have made a big come back, with combat boots being a major front-runner in must-haves for the season. And for those of us that struggle to find something to wear on days with early morning lectures, SAM has us covered, as it’s a question they often ask the stylish men and women they photograph. A good suggestion would be to take a few extra minutes to plan your outfit the day before, so that in the morning it’s quick and hassle free. Cheng also emphasized not to wear the same coloured shirt and pants unless it's all black. As for favourite accessories, Cheng can’t leave home without a watch to complete his outfit, and Du loves a silk or cotton scarf with a bold colour or pattern because “they’re an easy way to spruce up any outfit”.
You can check out SAM at www.styleatmac.tumblr.com. Their March fashion show is a few months away, but in the mean-time keep an eye out for their cameras and keep our campus stylish.
