Several Nacogdoches residents took a trip around the world Wednesday night as international students from Stephen F. Austin State University strutted down a catwalk in the grand ballroom of the Student Center to showcase traditional garments from their native countries.
The brainchild of junior SFA fashion merchandising student Giovanny Perez Barberis, a native of Quito, Ecuador, the international fashion show, hosted by the International Student Association, featured a variety of ceremonial dress, including an Indonesian wedding ensemble and religious dress from as far away as the Middle East and Norway.
Andrew Rogers/The Daily Sentinel |
Anh Nguyen, right, an international student from Vietnam studying accounting at Stephen F. Austin State University, gets a last minute touch up before going on stage.
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Andrew Rogers/The Daily Sentinel |
Jenny Tan, an international student at SFA from China, prepares to strut the catwalk at SFA Wednesday night.
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"It's a great opportunity for locals to get a taste of fashions from across the world," Barberis said. "A lot of times people may not be able to travel to these different places, and so we're bringing the fashions to them. It's our way to give back to the community, and we hope they learn something ... that their horizons are expanded."
Among the many models was Henriette Eidsnes, a sophomore geology student from Norway.
Eidsnes wore a navy blue nord hordalands budnah, a ceremonial Norwegian dress that she had initially worn during her confirmation into the Lutheran Church.
"There are many types of budnahs," she said prior to the show. "You have ones for winter and ones for summer."
As she picked up the decorative pinafore-style covering of the budnah, she noted that summer budnahs have the covering part made out of linen and lined with a red, while winter budnahs have it made from wool and are lined with blue.
She noted that in addition to religious ceremonies like a confirmation, budnahs are a common Norwegian ensemble to wear at weddings and other special occasions.
In addition to showcasing European countries, which also included France and England, a number of models wore native ensembles from India.
Muthu Manoharan, a graduate student from Chennai, India, walked out into the spotlight in a traditional dhuti and shirt.
The dhuti, which resembled a long skirt, is made from silk and typically worn on special occasions, he said.
He noted some of the other garments that residents would see in the show included half sarees, an elaborately draped garment that is typically worn by teenagers in India.
Manoharan said the half saree is a popular garment for south India. But in the north, women often wear a ghagra choli, a two-piece dress, while the men wear a shervani, a long, coat-like garment with pants.
Barberis said he started the show his freshman year at SFA, and has since tried to improve it each year, adding in cultural dances last year to accompany the styles, and focusing on the traditional dress of each country this year to give residents a feel of what they would see of they visited the area.
