From business and industrial design majors to public administration and theatre majors, students with a passion for fashion can release their creativity by joining the THREADS student group on campus.
Landerman Evra, senior accounting major, and Aniyyah Boone, senior public administration major, are president and vice president of THREADS, respectively.
The two started the student group last year during the fall semester, though they did host a fashion show during the summer.
"He's into modeling, I'm into fashion," Boone said, "so we kind of just like combined our talents, I guess, and formed a club to promote models and upcoming designers."
Last summer, they hosted a fashion show at Rock 'n' Joe's to raise money for sickle cell research.
So what is THREADS?
Evra answers that question concisely: "We are a fashion club that connects people of like interests in fashion together, and we share ideas."
"[We] collaborate and come up with events that would suit everyone in the club," Boone added.
The group also hosted a big fashion show in November called The THREADS Fashion Showcase.
"We had upcoming designers from the local area who participated, and the models were actually from Kean [University] and local areas," Boone said.
When asked what their favorite memory or event with THREADS has been, the two executive board members answered in unison: The fashion show.
"The fashion show--it was rewarding to see it was sold out and after the event everyone giving us feedback. And also I would say the models," Evra said.
Boone added that the models had practice every week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which was great because everyone was able to interact with each other.
"It feels good when they come back and say how 'you changed our lives,'" Evra said.
Members of the club, specifically Evra and Boone, have connections for anyone interested in pursuing a career in modeling through modeling agencies. By bringing in guest speakers, students have the opportunity to network and reach out to these contacts in the future
"There were some models we were involved with, and they had signed to agencies after the fashion show," Boone said.
The group is now working on planning several events for the spring semester, including a casting call for models and several charity fundraisers.
"I would like to encourage the Kean University campus to come and join us because we need more people who I think would enjoy this club," Evra said.
There are currently about 30 active members in the group, but when it comes to the fashion shows, guest speakers and volunteers, there can be over 50 people participating at once.
"Even if they work behind the scenes at the fashion show, they still contributed," Boone said.
If interested in joining the club, students should attend one of the general body meetings held on Tuesdays during college hour in Green Lane Academic Building (GLAB) room 206. The first meeting of the semester will be on Tuesday, January 31, 2017.
At general body meetings, members discuss the planning of upcoming events, host guest speakers and discuss ideas revolving around models, makeup artists and people who are interested in anything related to fashion.
The group welcomes anyone who is interested in the fashion industry, whether that be from the creative side or the business aspect of it.
"And we convince people who have no interest in fashion to just come in and then they enjoy it," Evra said.
