Moda Magazine wrapped up its UW Fashion Week with their annual runway show Friday night, where student designers and Madison area retailers showcased their collections at Union South.
About 500 students and residents gathered in Union South’s Varsity Hall to watch UW Fashion Week’s finale show with eight featured collections, ranging from student and local designers to boutique retailers.
The staff at Moda have hosted UW Fashion Week and its runway show for the last five years. Each year, they’ve grown in audiences, events and designers.
Jen Anderson, editor-in-chief of Moda, said the founders of UW Fashion Week sought to increase the presence of fashion coverage on campus.
“They wanted to bring international and national styles to the forefront of our campus and make fashion be appreciated as an art form,” Anderson said.
Since then, the runway show has provided an opportunity for local and student designers to develop and unveil their own collections to a wide audience.
UW-Madison student designer Em Kinville said the show is a positive experience for students to get involved with the fashion program at UW-Madison.
“I know that a lot of schools don’t have fashion programs, and many people don’t even know that UW has a fashion program,” Kinville said. “So opportunities like [the fashion show] get the word out that we have this exciting program that a lot of people put work into.”
UW Fashion Week brings recognition to the textiles and fashion design major, but Anderson said that it also raises the appreciation of fashion as an art form on the UW-Madison campus.
“When I was a freshman, fashion week [was] what made me obsessed over Moda Magazine. It made me care a lot more because I saw how fashion could be an art form,” Anderson said. “Not just something pretty to look at but something to appreciate all the artistry that goes into it.”
The runway show served as the conclusion to UW Fashion Week, as Moda collaborated with other organizations for the first two events earlier last week.
The first event was a Monday night viewing of “The September Issue,” which was hosted by Moda and WUD Film. They both also worked with the Office of Sustainability for the “Swap and Shop” event Wednesday night, where people could trade in old garments for new fashion.
Anderson said that her successor will continue to grow their audience and develop relationships with more designers within the community to make next year’s show bigger.
“We want to be a household name in the community that designers can be interested in going to,” she said. “We’ve built strong partnerships like with Moda Muñeca, and we want to get more people like that to develop strong relationships with.”
