With more than 20 design students, the annual exhibition was held in the lobby of the Library/LRC on the San Marcos campus.
SAN MARCOS — The popular fashion show MODA returned to campus on Wednesday, May 11, 2022 after a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving guests and online viewers a glimpse of the vibrant styles that Palomar College students spent months creating.
Presented and organized entirely by students from Palomar’s fashion design and merchandising program, the show was also broadcast live for the first time.
“Congratulations to all of the design students and event planners who made this year’s MODA fashion show possible,” said Palomar College Superintendent/President Dr. Star Rivera-Lacey. “MODA is a great example of the incredible creativity of our students and the educational programming available for nearly every career interest at Palomar.”
Rita Campo Griggs, an associate professor of fashion design and merchandising, said instead of a live fashion show, the program has been distributing student work online with video and photo content for the past two years.
“Every year we hear people say, ‘This is the best show ever,’ and it’s really nice to hear that,” Campo Griggs said. “I really liked the intimate place, and the librarians were great to work with. Everyone was very accommodating and I think it turned out to be a good show.”
This year’s FASHION theme was “75 Years of Style: Diamonds Are Forever.” In addition to the clothing, which is entirely designed and produced by the students, the show itself is a student production, staged as a final project in the Fashion Show Presentation class.
“Usually backstage at a fashion show is chaos, but it was a well-oiled machine, everything went as it was supposed to,” Campo Griggs said. “The students did a great job coordinating everything.”
After the hour-long show, several design students spoke about their experiences at Palomar College:
nyame danso
One of student designer Nyame Danso’s pieces at the MODA 2022 fashion show at Palomar College.
Last year, Danso traveled to Senegal, the West African country where she was born, and returned with all the floral material she used to design her women’s collection.
As a result of what she learned at Palomar, Danso has been invited to design a beachwear collection for San Diego Swim Week in 2023. She aspires to become a full-time fashion designer and said it was “surreal” to see his work on the FASHION catwalk.
“The models looked amazing and it was definitely worth all the sleepless nights.”
marla hope
Hope enrolled at Palomar and already had a certificate in fashion design and some experience as a designer. She said that she regularly attended MODA for 20 years, but that she never participated until this year’s program.
“It was amazing, so much fun, I’m not sure why I didn’t do it sooner,” she said. “The show was very intimate this time.”
Jonas Neal
Having started on the Fashion at Palomar program at the height of the pandemic, Neal plans to graduate next year. His collection included various looks from his own upstart fashion label, Syndari.
“This was my first time doing a show, and it was definitely busy before the show, but it was worth every little bit of stress – seeing all that work go down the runway was amazing.” he said.
Oliver Reinard
Reinard, the youngest designer in FASHION this year, said he hopes to go to New York and work in the fashion industry there. This spring was his first semester at Palomar, and his MODA collection was inspired by 1990s street and skate fashion.
“Everyone was great in the fashion department,” she said. “She was very nervous tonight and didn’t know what to expect, but was very happy with how my collection looked.”
alexis solorio
Alexis Solorio (right) at FASHION 2022.
Last fall, Solorio began sketching out the five “looks,” or complete outfits, that were modeled during MODA, her first runway experience as a designer.
“At first I was nervous about my pieces, but the models made me feel much more confident; the way I saw them wear them was better than I had imagined,” she said, adding that she plans to move to Los Angeles to pursue a job in fashion, later joining design school.
“I definitely want to keep designing and hopefully start my own business. I have loved being here: the whole experience has been very fun and interesting, and I have learned a lot”.
Anthony Zapata
After three semesters in the Fashion program here, Zapata has an apprenticeship in Los Angeles. She titled her FASHION collection “Rebirth” and said her design was inspired by her experience switching careers from science to fashion “after realizing it was what she really loved doing.”
“My hobby had been fashion, but I never had practical experience. Sewing was the hardest thing for me to learn,” she said. “This is definitely what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
Source: www.palomar.edu