WITH VIDEO: New venue for Threads Fashion Show boosts attendance for 32 featured designers
Kaitlyn Munro showcased her five-outfit, "Alice in Wonderland"-inspired line for 2,000 students and community members at the 13th annual Threads Fashion Show on Saturday.
The Maryland senior's line featured bright colors and each of her models concluded their runway performance by pulling sculpted tea cups from their costumes to sip from.
"I initially chose the theme 'fantasy tea party' thinking it would be fun to come up with creative ideas off of that," Munro said. "It's important to me to have a theatrical show. Fashion should be theater in a way — you're going to perform it."
Munro designed her own fashion line and modeled for a friend's as well during the show, which took place at 7 p.m. April 16 in McGuirk Arena.
Threads co-producer Alissa Berriman, an Orion senior, said the whole production went better than expected.
"I think it went amazingly," she said. "It was ten times better than Finch (Fieldhouse) just because of the acoustics and the seating."
A screen above the runway highlighted information about the student designers and displayed the models as they walked, and an exhibition in the lobby of the arena showed off more student creations. VIP seating was available close to the runway and attendees could sit in the stands as well.
Midland senior Elise Essenmacher, who modeled a dress from Munro's line, said hitting the runway for Threads was a way for her to not only help out her friend, but also to jump start her start.
"I want to go to New York and model after this, and do TV and film stuff," she said. "It's kind of like a start off for small Mount Pleasant."
More creative freedom was given to designers at this show than in previous years because it discarded an overarching theme.
"I like it," Munro said. "It gave us so much more flexibility. Even though there were constraints last year, it made us work a little bit harder, but this year, we got to really show exactly what we wanted to."
Instead of a theme, Berriman said the show featured 32 designers split evenly into either fall and winter or spring and summer categories.
Harbor Springs sophomore Jennise Thurston designed a nighttime water-inspired, four-outfit line for the fall and winter category in her first Threads appearance.
Her line featured black and dark blue flowing fabrics, and her models danced onto the runway.
"I'm a slow perfectionist, so I took a lot of time working on (the outfits)," she said.
Though creating her outfits took up a lot of time, up to 15 hours for some, Thurston said she will participate in Threads again next year.
