Last Friday, May 17, the Pi Lambda Chi (PLC) Latina Sorority Inc. Epsilon Chapter hosted their third annual Finest Fashion Show (FFS) at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel.
Starting at 10 p.m. on Friday night, the event lasted until 2 a.m., with the fashion show beginning at 11 p.m.
The show was Epsilon’s principle philanthropy event to raise funds for their non-profit partner organization, Women Work Together (WWT), which is based in Boulder and aims to raise the socio-economic status of Guatemalan girls by encouraging them to stay in school and teaching them leadership skills.
The partnership between Epsilon and WWT began when Daniels student and Epsilon sister, Leticia Campos was introduced to WWT through its co-founder, Tracey Ehlers, a DU Associate Professor Emerita of Anthropology, and traveled with the NGO to Guatemala in 2012. Since then, Epsilon sorority sisters Rojas and Stephanie Lopez have followed suit through the FFS.
Tickets were sold for $12 in advance and $15 at the door, and over 100 attendees in the required cocktail attire crowded the small venue, which featured a runway, bar and dance floor, all provided by the hotel.
Epsilon opened the event to both DU and non-DU populations by inviting students from surrounding universities and colleges but presented a special invitation to Multicultural Greeks, the Divine Nine Greeks (the nine traditionally African-American Greek organizations in the U.S.), the DU Inter-Fraternal Council, consisting of DU social fraternities along with the DU PanHellenic Council, consisting of DU social sororities and the DU ONE Community—an organization linking together all of the DU student alliances. Epsilon requested that two members, one male and female, from each of these organizations volunteer as models for the fashion show.
“I think it was a good marketing strategy because if you bring in people from certain student organizations, the whole organization kind of has to come through and cheer for them,” said Dia Mohamed, a third-year Biology student from Khartoum, Sudan, who modeled for the Black Student Alliance.
“The trouble with fundraisers is it’s hard to find events that people actually want to go to,” said Crystal Murillo, second-year international business major from Aurora modeling for the Latino Student Alliance. “The success is determined by the event’s appeal and the fashion show is a purely fun event which makes it one of the best types of fundraisers.”
Epsilon weaved in and out of the DU community to find collaborators for their event. They began looking for local fashion designers, makeup artists, hairstylists, DJs, photographers and film professionals—a process that consisted largely of footwork with third-year sorority sisters Miriam Estrada, and Brenda Gutierrez traversing the Denver area, asking for contributions in-person and later following up with letters.
The 2013 FFS designer brands included Olympian, a new brand founded this year in Aurora, and Gracie’s, a boutique located on South Pearl St. near DU.
“The willingness for people to work with us was really important,” said Gutierrez. “People believed in us and it helped us to move forward.”
After sorting out the main features, Epsilon tackled the finer details like obtaining the technology used to vote for the models—attendees texted the number assigned to each model to the computer system which counted the votes, one vote per cell phone.
This year, 20 models, 11 female and nine male, volunteered to strut the runway, each expressing a personal style with signature moves.
“Multicultural sororities and frats always support us a lot,” said Natalie Casey, a second-year business and pre-med student from Chicago modeling for Alpha Phi sorority. “They come to our events and really make an effort to support us, so we wanted to try and reach out to them.”
Before beginning the show at 11 p.m., Epsilon sisters Campos and Jeanette Rojas stepped onto the stage to describe WWT and their experiences volunteering with the NGO, reiterating the event’s philanthropic cause.
“We are so closely aligned in our respective missions: to support and unlock the potential of girls and women through education and leadership development,” said Diane Dvorin, WWT Co-Founder and Managing Director. “In the case of PLC, it’s Latina women at U.S. colleges. For WWT, it’s Mayan girls in the Guatemalan highlands.”
This year’s raising goal was $2,000. All of the show’s proceeds go towards advancing WWT’s projects such as Las Hermanitas (Big & Little Sisters), in which teen girls in their last year of junior high mentor second and third graders who are at risk of dropping out, helping them improve their reading and math skills and motivating them to stay in school.
The fashion show was organized into four parts in which the models exhibited each of the designers’ apparel, followed by a section on college gear (displaying Greek letters and student organization shirts) and finally a section presenting formal wear provided by the models themselves.
The show allowed for one male and one female winner. However, the 2013 FSS ended in a tie between female champions Solongo Batsukh, representing DU’s ASA, and Maria Castilla from PLC Zeta Chapter. Craig Hirokawa, representing ASA, took home the title for the males. Each winner was awarded a medal and bouquet of flowers.
“Fashion shows are something that people have always talked about and wanted to see,” said Mohamed. “So it sparks your curiosity and it seems like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
