Sorority sponsors fashion show for charity organization

Nicole Calderon and Samantha Floyd are defying stereotypes.

These Pitt students, members… Nicole Calderon and Samantha Floyd are defying stereotypes.

These Pitt students, members of Delta Phi Epsilon and announcers at the sorority’s first annual fashion show, talked about Pitt students who modeled everything from jeans and T-shirts to combat boots and tutus.

After the show, they came to the same conclusion.

“You don’t have to be thin to be beautiful,” they said in unison.

Delta Phi Epsilon held the fashion show on Tuesday night in the Assembly Room of the William Pitt Union. The event raised money for one of the sorority’s philanthropies, The National Association for Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.

Amy DiToto, philanthropy coordinator for Delta Phi Epsilon, began the show by reading some statistics about women on college campuses, statistics that say 11 percent of women suffer from bulimia and 90 percent have reported “serious dieting.” She described eating disorders and out-of-control dieting as prevalent and serious.

Samantha Floyd, a Delta Phi Epsilon member and upcoming vice president of programming, said that she was not aware of the “big number” of statistics about eating disorders and dieting among college women.

“It’s a big problem that is not really talked about,” she said.

According to the official Web site of ANAD, eating disorders have reached epidemic levels in America, affecting men as well as women and people at all socio-economic levels.

They report that 7 million women suffer from eating disorders while 1 million men are affected by them. Currently, anorexia has the highest mortality rate of all mental disorders.

Nicole Calderon, a Delta Phi Epsilon member who thought of the event and helped coordinate it, said that her sorority hoped to raise money for its cause, but also promote positive body images to students on campus.

“Ironically, it has been a big issue in the fashion industry,” she said. “They are more aware and realize that it is not healthy.”

The show featured a set called “Pitt Students Portray Their Perception of ‘Comfortable in Your Own Jeans,'” where models strutted their stuff in an array of graphic T-shirts by a local design company. After the show, Floyd said that all the models, casual or dressed up, were “beautiful and amazing.”

The fashion show featured everything from the usual, such as sneakers, jeans and T-shirts, to renaissance costumes provided by the Pittsburgh Fashion Academy. The models gave the costumes a modern twist by pairing them with accessories.

The women modeled brightly colored tutus and combat boots while the men wore velvet capes, sunglasses, messenger bags and fur hats. Pitt students from different organizations on campus strutted down the runway to the sound of The Sexes, a local band that played during the show.

Pitt student Katie McGinley saw her designs modeled on stage for the first time Tuesday night. Although she enjoys fashion as a hobby, the mechanical engineering major said that she does not plan to pursue it as a career.

“If engineering and my three languages don’t get me a job, then I’ll go into fashion,” she said.

McGinley, who taught herself how to sew when she was a sophomore in high school, said that most of the designs featured on stage came from her own wardrobe. The males on stage modeled clothes that she designed for her boyfriend, a visual art major at Yale University, who helps her come up with ideas for her designs.

Men and women in the show modeled some of McGinley’s designs, for example a white corset that, before she made alterations to it for the show, she wore to her high school graduation. The show also featured an ankle-length tan kilt and tuxedo jacket that she made for her boyfriend, among other pieces.

McGinley said that if she ever had her own lines of clothing she would call it “Clothes are Necessary in Today’s Polite Society.”

“I’m just going with a foot-long tag to say that,” she said.

Lee Croft, an independent designer from Greensburg, also saw her designs come to life on stage for the first time. Croft, a writer, makes clothes and accessories at home without using pre-packaged patterns.

She said that her inspiration comes mainly from “rock and roll” and whatever she thinks she wants to wear at the time. Croft said that skirts are her favorite pieces to make.

“There’s so much you can do with a skirt,” she said. “They are the girliest.”

Croft said that she thinks fashion design could be more than a hobby for her, but she didn’t know if she could pursue it. After the fashion show, she hopes to create a Web site and might be interested in pursuing freelance design.

“I don’t think it’s something I want to do for real,” she said. “The industry is ridiculous.”

Delta Phi Epsilon will host more events to raise money for ANAD and awareness of body image, including workshops to promote healthy eating and a candlelight vigil to reflect on the cause and send a message of “hope and recovery.” Calderon and Floyd said that the sorority hopes to continue the fashion show and make it “bigger and better” next year.

“It has so much more potential to be amazing,” Calderon said. “I want to wow people.”