IU’s Fashion Forward club will host the Thrifted Fashion Show and thrifted market at 7 p.m. Sunday in Alumni Hall at the Indiana Memorial Union. The fashion show will be the first the student organization has hosted since the club’s founding in 2024. The show and subsequent market will be free and open to the public.
Up to 30 designs will be displayed from around 10 designers in the show. Featured designs will be created primarily by students, which are selected based on submissions during the month leading up to the event.
Hannah Shepherd, a junior merchandising major and the president of Fashion Forward, said she wanted to hold this fashion show to fill the niche between school-run shows and Bloomington community shows such as Trashion Refashion.
Shepherd said Natalia Diaz, the founding president of Fashion Forward, always wanted a fashion show to be the capstone of the club’s work; now, Shepherd hopes to make that goal come true.
Fashion Forward centers itself on diversity and inclusion. It strives to create a safe and welcoming environment for anyone interested in fashion. So, the club took design submissions from anyone in the community who was interested, not just fashion students.
Another one of Fashion Forward’s main focuses is sustainability, so the show heavily features handcrafted and thrifted materials.
After the show, Fashion Forward is partnering with Bring Your Own Business to hold a market at 8 p.m. in the IMU Solarium. The market will feature community and student entrepreneurs selling clothing, jewelry and other handmade items. Some of the designers featured in the show will also have some of their pieces for sale.
Even club members coordinating the event, such as junior media marketing major and Fashion Forward vice president Siri Raghunayakula, are looking forward to shopping during the market.
“I’ll be shopping in the market for sure, 100%,” Raghunayakula said.
Raghunayakula, Shepherd and freshman marketing director Aaryana Kapadia are behind making this event possible. The president and vice president will make sure the show runs smoothly, and Kapadia has already created a marketing campaign via flyers and Instagram for the event and will be in attendance to photograph.
As a freshman, Kapadia is hoping to keep building the event for the future.
“I think my biggest goal is to kind of set the stage for next year as well, and kind of, like build hype around the event,” Kapadia said.
While the event will be run without a sponsor, the organization has teamed up with BYOB and IU’s SEASON Magazine to make sure as many people hear about it as possible.
“I think it's kind of awesome that we get to have it in those big rooms,” Shepherd said. “But we don't have any sponsors, and so that's kind of why we collaborated with both BYOB and with SEASON, just to try and get the word out as much as possible.”
The event is free to attend, and you can RSVP on BeInvolved before the event.
