It's all in the way you wear it.
The air brims with excitement. People shout above the blaring music. Young women are dressed to the nines in party and formal best while young men stroll about in slacks and jeans.
This hectic scene was all part of Saturday's 2001 Spring Fling Fashion Show.
The event is running behind schedule, and in the interim, some young men start rapping along with the songs being blasted over the public announcement system.
But all of a sudden, a speaker's voice breaks through the system, lights hit the runway and smoke billows up. With emphatic, defiant expressions, the models storm out to loud cheers and screams. Dance moves and struts complement their runway strides as they walk in frayed contemporary clothing. A lone girl ascends the runway, turns around and throws glitter at the audience. The show has begun.
The fashion show, titled Temptation, has been a University tradition since 1989 as part of Spring Fling. Spring Fling began around the same time as a way to attract prospective minority students to the University. During Spring Fling weekend, events, forums, panels and parties exhibit the University's community of minority solidarity.
Third-year College student Calvin Calhoun and fourth-year College student Shayla McGee, produce the show.
"This is my third year in the show. I mirrored the girl who did it before and learned the work behind the show," Calhoun said.
Calhoun, dressed in track shorts and a blue scarf tied around his head, represents Playamade Productions, a company that co-produced the event. Steamroom Productions and Delta Sigma Theta sorority also helped put the show together, which has been a year in the making.
"The first year we had the fashion show, 300 students tried out and it's been fairly strong ever since," Calhoun said. "We look for walk, stage presence and attitude."
The show is aimed at providing entertainment for minority prospective students, and students of many ethnic backgrounds also are involved in putting it together. This year, the show featured black, white, Arab and Asian models.
"We look for diversity," Calhoun said. "Not too many people outside the African-American community try out, but for example, we've had about three white students or so in the show per year."
While the fashion show may seem like a small-scale event focused exclusively on the University, it actually attracts the attention of some big-city designers.
"Designers have sent us their stuff from New York - smaller designers mostly," Calhoun said.
The show also has received clothes from big-name companies like the Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch, in addition to promoting some of Charlottesville's local designers.
Calhoun also said the show attracts some model scouts. One such scout selected a producer that Calhoun shadowed last year.
Fashion sense
The atmosphere before the show is tense and electric. Although North Grounds Recreational Center usually is a place where gym shorts-clad students work out on treadmills and build up a sweat, today the area has been transformed into a dressing room and runway arena.
In anticipation of the show, young women rush about, throwing on clothes at the last minute, while others sit patiently applying their makeup. The male models, however, have long since been ready. Most of these men are naked from the waist up and will remain so for the entire show. But before stepping onto the runway, the men do sit-ups so their stomach muscles will ripple.
Christina Parrish, a first-year College student and a model in the show who is coiffed in makeup, admits that her excitement has overshadowed any nervousness she might have had.
"I thought it would be something fun, something that everyone can't do," Parrish said. "It makes you stand out."
While this is her first year strutting down the runway, models Michael Fields and Leslie Green are more seasoned veterans.
Fields, a fourth-year College student, and Green, a third-year College student, have participated in the fashion show since first coming to the University.
"It's been a lot of fun. I enjoy doing it," Fields said. "It's an energy, a rush that's over so fast and bittersweet in a sense."
Green also said she loves working the runway and has been modeling since she was a child. "I hope to do some print modeling - I am too short for runway, she said earnestly. Green is well under the normal 5-foot-9 height of most female models.
But even if it may seem like a brief experience to many of the models, the show leaves plenty of glamour and flash in its wake.
Everything from sequins to silk to velvet made its way down the runway. The show also exhibited business casual suits, evening gowns, lingerie and swimwear. Young male models strode out and ripped off shirts, which caused salutations of joyful glee from young women in the audience. The female models received as much adulation when they emerged in lingerie - the men closest to the runway stood up and applauded them. Some women even tossed articles of clothing into the audience.
Tanya Mendis, a second-year College student, was excited to be at the show. She came to support friends who were participants and because she was in the show last year.
With a smirk, Mendis admits that her favorite part of the show is the lingerie portion.
"Expect some outrageous clothes, expect the unexpected - not to see the clothes but what's underneath them," she said.
First-year College students Akosua Baah-Dwomoh and Elona Roy also seemed to be in awe of the event that unfolded before their eyes.
"I loved the guys," Baah-Dwomoh said laughing. "I will definitely come back next year."
Almost ready to wear
Although audience members seemed to enjoy thoroughly the parades of well-dressed, well-muscled fashion participants Saturday, it's been an arduous ride for the models themselves at times.
The 38 models were selected in November and have rehearsed every week since then.
Two models, second-year College student Meghan Waters and fourth-year College student Ryan Johnson, hang back to relax before another long rehearsal. They are preparing to practice "the walk" in stiletto heels.
"I've been interested in doing it for a while," Waters said, grinning. "I love the clothes."
But Johnson had a slightly different point of view. "I went to the fashion show last year with my roommate," Johnson said and paused in mid-thought. "Looking at it, I didn't think I would be there now. But some guys stopped me and a friend one time and asked us if we wanted to try out, and here I am."
As a white student, Johnson is a relatively uncommon addition to the predominantly black show, but she emphatically denies feeling awkward.
"Coming from the Spanish House, cultures really interest me," she said. "The people have been friendly and very accepting." Johnson is a Spanish House resident.
Although the girls have endured months of practice for the fashion show Johnson agrees with Waters that the hardest part of the show "is going to be walking out there and looking confident"
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