Group planning local condom fashion show

llumenate Bloomington, a social group for young gay and bisexual men, is presenting a condom fashion show as part of a larger Condom Fashion Week to coincide with National Condom Week.

The free show will take place at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Coffeehouse at Collins Center. Other activities this week included a Grammy viewing party and a conversation about sexual consent.

Seven design groups, working either individually or as part of a team, are making outfits for the show. They were given 500 condoms in seven colors to bring their designs to life.

Junior Shaily Hakimian is using black condoms to create a skirt and weaved top for the show, which she described as “Miami clubwear.”

“I’ve been braiding condoms for the last two weeks,” she said.

Hakimian said she is participating in the fashion show for multiple reasons. She is affiliated with several lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations on campus and said she hopes to make a statement about the importance of reproductive health rights.

She said she also wanted to challenge herself and see if she could pull off a design using only condoms.

“Condoms are indestructible,” she said. “You can’t melt them, and you can’t hot-glue them. It’s impossible.”

While Hakimian is designing by herself, other designers are working as part of a team. Sophomores Miranda Merkley, Lindsey McDermott and Molly Blyth-Olson are collaborating on a single dress design. 

They are using a few other materials in addition to black and blue condoms.

“We started sewing the condoms on an oversize T-shirt base, but that was not going so well, so we decided to start stapling them,” Merkley said.

The girls are designing a dress because they thought it would be fun to participate in the show.

“I wanted a socially acceptable outlet to wear a condom dress,” said Merkley, who will be modeling the dress in the show. “I wanted to see what it would be like to be the one inside the condom for once.”

However, they said they also hope to bring attention to  the benefits of using a condom during sexual practices.

“Condoms are an important thing to know about,” McDermott said. “College kids don’t usually participate in safe sex because it’s inconvenient or not sexy.”

Illumenate Coordinator Patrick Battani said the larger goal of the fashion show is to raise awareness about condom use and give a sex-positive message, which he describes as “safe and sane” sex among consenting individuals.

“We want people to start that conversation about condom use because that conversation is often forgotten about,” Battani said.