When friends Dilenny Feliz and Nyela Liverpool noticed the stylish students around campus, they decided that creating an inclusive, community centered space where everyone could openly express themselves through style was an amazing idea, and thus, Marywood Fashion Club was created.
“I think the main point overall of the fashion club was to create an inclusive space for anybody that wanted to express their identity, even if it’s through like small accessories, or styling your hair. It doesn’t have to be just clothes,” said Feliz, senior art therapy major and president of Marywood’s fashion club.
“We saw a lot of people on campus and we wanted to showcase their creativity,” said Liverpool, senior art therapy major and vice president of Marywood’s fashion club. “Like if they know how to create jewelry or crochet, and since we have a crocheting club on campus we would have worked with them.”
This is not the only time they have worked with other campus clubs. The fashion club places a big emphasis on community, and has also worked with the Shutterbugs, Marywood’s Photography Club, and continues to, through photoshoots showcasing everyone’s stylistic choices. They are also planning to collaborate with Dr. Monica Law for environmental week, holding a fashion show out of recycled materials this spring.
A large part of the fashion club’s identity is promoting diversity and inclusion, ensuring every person feels like they have a space in which they can express themselves and be welcomed.
“Marywood is very PWI (predominantly white institution), and we are both basically minority students and those that are into fashion sometimes tend to feel like they are often underrepresented, because they have a very expressive outlook in their identity which doesn’t really get pushed a lot,” Feliz said. “So I think part of the reason why we wanted to showcase that is we are minorities and we wanted to create a welcoming space for other students because we can also feel welcomed as well.”
The fashion club is filled with so many students who all have such fun, different, stylistic expression forms and take inspiration from a large array of different sources.
Derek Plata, treasurer of Marywood’s fashion club and junior accounting student, says he is into tropical, beachy styles, and likes accessories that symbolize that and really loves the designer Iris Van Herpen. While Jada Siino, secretary of Marywood’s fashion club and senior early childhood education student, says she gets to see a lot of different styles from being in the fashion club and thinks to herself how she can try them out some time, taking a lot of inspiration from those around her. She says the fashion club has been very eye-opening in this sense.
Marywood’s fashion club meets biweekly, and will often send out polls through email or Instagram to see what days and times fit best for the members. Its meetings are like a big friend group hangout, sometimes consisting of playing dress to impress, or going to places like Plato’s Closet with a placed budget to see what outfit someone can come up with. If you are interested in joining this bubbly group of students in the Marywood Fashion Club you can reach out to them through Instagram.
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