As the Fashion Weeks of New York City, London, Paris and Milan end, Fashion Week at Iowa State will just begin. Fashion Week at Iowa State will begin on April 9 and end on April 12, with events for all students each day in between.

Patagonia, The Fashion Show’s guest designer, will be hosting several events toward the end of the week. The events of Fashion Week are intended to promote and get students excited for this year’s 2018 Fashion Show.  

Fashion Week is put on and planned by the the Fashion Week committee. The directors of Fashion Week are Abbey Osterloo, senior in apparel, merchandising and design, Amber Vander Veen, senior in apparel, merchandising and design, Sydney Lawrence, senior in apparel, merchandising and design, and Grace Horak, senior in apparel, merchandising and design. The four have been working together since fall of 2017, along with their committee members, to plan this week of events.

The four directors said this year’s Fashion Week is different than past years because this year the events will be more focused on Iowa State students as a whole instead of just Fashion Show and apparel, merchandising and design students. It’s focused on educating students on what the apparel, merchandising and design major really is.

“We want to promote Patagonia and things like that but I just think that this year, Fashion Week, it just feels more authentic and real,” Horak said. “I know, even last night, somebody was like, ‘So what do you do as an apparel major? Do you guys like judge everybody with dressing?’ And I’m like, ‘No.’ There’s a lot of stipulations about our major and so I really want students to come and see what we are really about.”

With Patagonia as the guest designer, Fashion Week members have taken more of a wellness approach to some of their events.

“We really bounced off Patagonia’s company and what they’re all about and then went into the wellness and then we got the beauty side of it, so definitely bouncing off Patagonia,” Vander Veen said. 

The events kick off on Monday with a movie night that will show “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” with popcorn, a candy bar and f’real shakes.

Following the kickoff on Monday will be Toned Tuesday, which is focused on student wellness. Students are invited to come with Fashion Show members to State Gym for a morning of High Intensity Interval Training, Zumba and Yoga, with fresh fruit and refreshments available for all participating students.    

Worth it Wednesday will have representatives from Body Image Eating Disorder Awareness (BEIDA) and Student Wellness’ Be Well Hut there to speak with student about body image and health.

The Fashion Show will be giving away free samples from Studio7, Serenity Couture and Finesse Spa Salons Somerset and Campus. Students will be able to enter to win spa certificates from PCI Academy Iowa and Finesse Spa Salons Campus Somerset.

On both Wednesday and Thursday of Fashion Week, Patagonia’s Worn Wear Truck will be on campus. This truck is like a mobile sewing room that can help anyone to fix virtually any problem with their clothing.

This truck, which tours college campuses all over the country for free, is aimed at educating everyone on the importance of repairing, reusing and recycling clothing items in order to keep more clothing out of landfills. This truck does not just fix Patagonia clothing, it welcomes any clean damaged items to be fixed. 

On Thursday, three of Patagonia’s representatives will give a lecture called “Using Business as a Tool for Change.”

Thursday is also Take Over Thursday where students are invited to come learn all about The Fashion Show and the apparel, merchandising and design program in a Q&A session. Take Over Thursday will feature two DJs — Sebastian Madej, also known as DJ Seb, who will DJ from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and DJ ELKN, also known as Mateo Rodriguez, who will DJ from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Fashion Show t-shirts and merchandise will be sold.

The Pop-Up shop, hosted by the Pop-Up Shop committee, will begin at 10 a.m. on Friday under the Parks Library awning. The Pop-Up Shop consists of a clothing drive where people can exchange one piece of clothing for another and will have speakers from different clubs on campus that are focused on sustainability such as Rent the Runway. The Pop-Up Shop committee wanted to do this event in order to educate students on the importance of sustainability.

“We felt like it was important to show Iowa State students that you don’t always have to buy new to be trendy or have the newest thing in fashion,” said Madison Adams, Pop-Up Shop director and junior in apparel, merchandising and design. “I think a lot of people think you have to have the newest items to be fashionable. So we wanted to show that fashion is a lot more than that.”

Friday night consists of Fashion’s Night Out, which will take place at the Gateway Hotel. This event is intended to be one last celebration before The Fashion Show, which will consist of hors d’oeuvres, desserts, live music and a speech from Patagonia’s representatives.

“It’s kind of like cocktail hour,” Vander Veen said. “It’s like dress up, you get to eat food, listen to live music and we are going to have a raffle for two VISA $50 gift cards.”