CREDIT: EMILY MURFIN, FASHION MERCHANDISING, MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT STUDENT
Students from the fashion marketing and management program have been working for the past couple of months to bring together the Fashion Rewind show on March 29 at the London Music Hall.

Fanshawe’s fashion merchandis­ing students, directed under the mar­keting and management program are putting on their second big show of the year with Fashion Rewind on March 29 at London Music Hall.

According Linda Jenken, profes­sor of the program, as well as co-or­dinator of the event, the show is hosted and produced by second year students in the program while first year students create the garments.

Jenken said that though the show has been occurring for many years, each year the theme changes, with this year’s focus on the college’s 50th anniversary, therefore Fashion Rewind was chosen.

The collection of ‘wearable art’ is inspired by the ‘60s to present day, looking back at the evolution of fashion through the decades.

“The first year students create the garment using recyclable materials based on the decade they’ve been assigned, and a lot of their inspira­tion is through music, movies and pop culture of those decades,” Jen­ken said.

Along with the students, Jenk­en said she tries to come up with themes that are “fairly tangible and concrete” while students tend to mold it to what they want before sharing it with the first year students and overall it’s fun to see what the students come up.

Jenkens said the students who create the garments tend to come up with inspiration which then leads to sketching, a storyboard with their material which furthers their visions and then they start creating the gar­ments.

“This year we will be having photos of past decades showcased throughout the event and we will also have a spokesperson from Fan­shawe speaking about the anniver­sary,” Jenken said. “So we’re com­bining in a little bit of marketing when it comes to the actual college, but it’s also our way of celebrating 50 years through fashion.”

According to Jenken, the second year students are broken down into three different categories, including merchandise and modeling, advert­ing promotion and stage production, when setting the show up.

Since the show is part of the course curriculum, students began the planning and preparation for it since January, Jenken said.

There was some pre-fundraising before January, however Jenken said it’s “primarily 12 weeks of hard work up until the event”.

In terms of production, Jenken said the creation of garments and production has gone well, meaning the crew is right on target for the big evening.

According to Jenken, not only is the event a learning experience for the students, but there is greater meaning in terms of who the event will help out.

“It’s important because the stu­dents are not only learning the pro­cess of creating an event, in fact many of our students go on to event planning from our program, but it’s also the connection with the com­munity.

Majority of proceeds will be go­ing to the Children’s Health Foun­dation in support of programs in­cluding the Bravery Bead program, Ollie the Clown, the Art Therapy program and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for preemies, Jenken said, while some proceeds also go back to the fashion program.

“I encourage everyone to come out and support a great cause and support our program for a great night of fashion,” Jenken said.

Erika McCall, a second year stu­dent, and Carina Moreira, an ex­change student from Brazil, are both in the merchandising, marketing and management program and part of the advertising production team for the event.

According to Moreira, the two helped come up with the ticket and poster designs, as well as press kits and are working on more advertis­ing including through social media.

McCall, the co-ordinator of the advertising promotions team, said that although there have been a few setbacks and struggles along the way, including proper exposure and getting the word out in such a short period of time, communication has been good and everything is going as planned.

“The theme is great, it’s a pretty solid theme, and you can do a lot with it and it’s kind of different from what we’ve done in the past years, so I kind of like that and it kind of brings the theme all together and really is going to be a celebration of Fanshawe which is also really great,” McCall said.

As the event comes closer, Morei­ra is optimistic about it all.

“Putting everything together is going to be a really tough week and pretty busy, but I’m pretty sure ev­erything is going to work out really well and it will be awesome.”

The event is casual dress code and also involves a silent auction, a treat table and other draws.

Tickets are $25 and can be pur­chased at a number of places includ­ing Live Chic, Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) Biz Booth, the design office M3010 and online through the London Music Hall, as well as at door of the venue.