Each year, Iowa State University has a student-run textile and clothing fashion show showcasing the hard work and unique collections from the students involved.

The process of organizing the event lasts a year, from design, model casting, garment turn-ins, Judging Day and the final show. But the show organizers don’t know what apparel will be submitted until a month before the event and a day before model fitting.

Joris (Jojo) Montijo, senior in apparel, merchandising and design, found a conflict with the current timeline for the Iowa State annual fashion show.

“I talked to [the fashion show executives] before fit night, and that’s when they told me that they had a variety of plus sizes, so I kept my mind open,” Montijo said. “I wasn’t like, ‘No, if it’s not my model, I don’t want to do it.’ They told me that they have seven plus-size models. And then I talked [to them] again after fit night and I saw all the plus-size models, and the biggest girl was a size 14.”

Montijo said she went into the Fashion Show with a positive attitude, but she ultimately decided it was best for her to host her own show. She envisioned something different than what the fashion show was offering.

“In the fashion industry, plus size starts at 8 and finishes at like size 14 or 16, so we’re creating a line that will start at size 14 and [end at] 24,” Montijo said. “We’re creating this event to promote body positivity and embracing curves.”

Montijo decided to have her own personal show the day before the Iowa State Fashion Show. Her collection, titled “Curves With Confidence,” will feature a wide range of designs focused on plus-size fashion. In order to find models for her show, Montijo began with a woman she knew who fit the image of what she wanted for her collection. 

“I explained to them what we were doing and then I asked them about comfortability levels,” Montijo said. “I want them to be confident with what they’re wearing.”

Models cannot be hand picked by the designers for the Fashion Show because they must all go through the casting process, which was established many years ago.

“My sense is there’s probably been a lack of communication between different groups, and I think that’s normal,” said Robert Bosselman, chair of the department of apparel, events and hospitality management. “It’s always important to remember the Fashion Show is a student-run operation and, in many ways, this is a learning opportunity for all the students involved, but by no means is there a heavy hand here at all.”

Montijo said she has been upfront and respectful through this process, as have the executives of the show. 

“There’s no impact on the show itself,” Bosselman said. “Jojo is part of the show, and I think that’s terrific and it’s something that she feels very strongly about. And therefore we’re happy that she’s going about and doing [her own show], and she’s doing it in the right way. She went around campus, she got all the right approvals, etc., so to me, that shows the professionalism of the student.”

In regard to policies for students hosting their own shows, the main concern of the department is making sure students don’t do something and take the name of the fashion show itself, thus implying that what they’re doing is part of the actual show, when it’s not.

“It’s not that we’re going to say you can’t do this, you can’t do that,” Bosselman said. “Many of our students go and compete around this country, which is really tremendous, whether it’s Chicago, New York, Kansas City, Omaha … we just want them to let us know up front what it is they’re doing and that way we can help.”

Montijo began designing at Iowa State in the fall of 2014. This will be the first year she is showing a collection to the public.

Montijo was a signed model in Puerto Rico and came to the United States with the goal to focus more on school. But during the past year, she has modeled in Detroit for Lane Bryant, and in last year’s fashion show at Iowa State.

“I created [my own show] because the Iowa State fashion show needs a little bit more variety when it comes to plus-size models, and it was really hard for not just me, but other designers that wanted to do plus size,” Montijo said. “To put it in [the fashion show] was kind of hard because you envision your creation to be a type of body, but then the models they have here are thinner so you have to fix all your stuff, and at the end, it’s not your vision.”

The target of Montijo’s show is awareness. She wants people to see that every body type is different, and there is beauty in that difference.  

“Some people hate the word fat because people think it’s a synonym of ugly, and it’s not like that,” Montijo said. “Like someone is tall, they are tall, someone is fat, they are fat, it doesn’t mean ugly or lazy. So I’m just trying to bring positivity to it.”

Bosselman, who is familiar with Montijo, spoke directly with Montijo about hosting her own show. He discussed the creativity and skills of the students involved in the show during the 10 years he’s held the department chair position.

“What I have observed is the students pushing the boundaries of fashion, which makes us proud as faculty, because what it’s showing is that we have students with very strong skill sets and they have a lot of vision,” Bosselman said. “That’s what this show really is about, it’s about the students and it’s about students being able to achieve to the best of their abilities.”

“Curves With Confidence” will begin at 11:50 a.m. Friday at the Memorial Union on the middle terrace.