Fashion Conscience’s ‘Beauty in Bloom Show Celebrates Natural Beauty

By: Larry Stansbury –

Being unapologetically yourself means not only accepting but rather embracing and even celebrating what makes you, you. And that’s exactly what Fashion Conscience did with its 2018 spring show.

Fashion Conscience is SU’s first minority fashion organization on campus. The goal of this organization is to fight against the lack of diversity in the fashion industry. They presented their annual fashion show this year with the theme Beauty in Bloom. This theme was dedicated to the idea of unleashing unique natural beauty. No two models were alike, just as no two flowers are alike. Fashion Conscience’s theme this spring aligned with themes that emerged across the entire fashion industry as a whole this year. At the 2018 New York Fashion Week, Gucci, Christian Dior and Moschino used floral themes for their shows as well.

While attending the show, I immediately noticed that each model wore natural makeup to enhance their given features and to show the audience what made them beautiful as an individual. Looking around the runway, I saw that both sides featured walls filled with hand-crafted floral designs of white flowers with a bit of color. The floral walls exuded positivity and harmony to the audience.

          

The vibrancy and variety of the types of ensembles featured in the show also promoted individuality. One collection in the Fashion Conscience show had a logo where a voluptuous woman of color bloomed outside of a flower on a flat-screen. My favorite fashion line used models coming wearing dark colored bomber jackets and black jeans, which had an urban effect. There were other collections that had sweatshirts that had the word “Parmesan” in both horizontal and vertical direction, jumpsuits, sweatshirts small pouches inside and outside the outfit, black pants and oversized t-shirts.

Although the show may have seemed a bit eclectic to an outsider, the theme had very specific roots. The show was inspired by rapper Tupac Shakur’s short poem “The Rose That Grew from Concrete,” which promotes the idea that despite adversity in society, everyone can rise above and bloom into their own best version of themselves. Nada Sherdy, PR Director of Fashion Conscience, loved the meaning of the theme. “Since we are the only minority-based organization on campus, we felt as though this theme can not only resonate with people but inspire them, as well,” Sherdy said. “Most importantly, we just wanted to portray the message that there is beauty in facing and overcoming adversity, in showing your real beauty and in blooming in your natural state.”

While it was easy to be distracted by the lights and action of the show, the main takeaway was still quite clear: always stay true to your beautiful self because your uniqueness makes you who you are.