Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. held its fourth annual “Hollywood Nights” Fashion Show Extravaganza at the University Student Union’s Northridge Center last Thursday. The show’s theme was “Jungle Fever.”
Students, friends and family of participants purchased $7 pre-sale tickets or paid $10 at the door, filling the ground floor of the center to capacity. Presented to them a show full of music, dance and poetry, but most of all, hot new fashion.
The show, which was hosted by aspiring rap artist Minks, with music by DJ Ref of 93.5 KDAY, featured clothing of various designers and the modeling talent of 46 participants. The models included CSUN students and young adults from the community, who tried out for the fashion show during an open-call audition.
“We had people from Pierce College, Cal State Dominguez and even recent graduates from Hampton University in Virginia,” said Jahmai Webster, member of Alpha Phi Alpha and co-chair of the event.
“We posted flyers all around campus, but most people heard about the auditions through word-of-mouth,” said Krystale Egeonuigwe, who helped organize the show. “We had people calling us about it before we even started to promote.”
The fashion show featured hairstyles by stylists at Xtra Hair, located on Reseda Boulevard in Northridge, and haircuts by Kelvin Truitt, a former CSUN student who opened Granada Hills-based In the Zone Barbershop.
DJ Ref played the top hip-hop and R’B hits as the long line of people entered the center. Then, with no introduction, the music changed and models began to walk the runway wearing black and gold, the colors of Alpha Phi Alpha.
Female models wore their hair long and pin straight, big and curly, or pulled back into a long, thick braid, as they paraded on the runway in stiletto heels throughout the show.
The first clothing line of the show to be featured was Blow Collection, whose motto is, “Whatever you do, just look good doing it.” Models walked the runway wearing Blow Collection clothing as the instrumental to rapper Mims’ debut song, “This is Why I’m Hot,” played. Also on the runway was a live rapper who performed his own lyrics to the song.
The clothing line was characterized by rips, tears, sparkles and T-shirts with the words “Touch me, tease me, kiss me, blow me” printed on them.
Models wore shirts with the words “La Familia,” and “Hell Razor” printed on them in a collection called The Bureau, which was reminiscent of 1980s urban wear, accompanied by thick, gold jewelry.
Angela Bowie, who watched the show, said, “I saw a couple of outfits that I would wear. I like that they had designers to showcase this year. I’d say it was a tie between the second annual Alpha fashion show and this year’s show.”
Other collections featured in the show included Hunter Hill, Tye Collins and AK5.
During a special feature of the show, models wore clothes and carried flags that represented the home countries of participants, including Belize, Panama, Ethiopia and Nigeria.
Webster said participants had been practicing for the show for more than a month.
“It’s wonderful coming back after graduating and seeing everyone progressing,” said CSUN alumni, Michael Allen, who joined Alpha Phi Alpha in 2006 during his last year at CSUN and volunteered by collecting money at the door for tickets to the show.
Encore Dance Company, which was founded by CSUN student Dereck McCay, performed four different dance selections throughout the show, ranging in style from hip-hop to contemporary. They maintained the fashion show’s vibe, as they changed outfits for each performance, whether it was camouflage attire, ripped jeans and T-shirts or plaid Bermuda shorts and tank tops.
Also featured in the show were the African-American fraternities of CSUN, Kappa Alpha Psi, Phi Beta Sigma, Omega Psi Phi and Mu Lambda Psi, which came out in red and white, blue and white, purple and gold and purple and gray colors, respectively.
The crowd cheered and screamed the names of their friends once they reached the end of the runway, but it was a poet who recited a poem constructively criticizing the state of African-Americans that received the loudest cheers from the crowd. “How long must we sing to our own degradation?people want to perpetuate their own downfall?” The audience cheered, stood and clapped in agreement with the words.
Lil’ Al B. Sure, son of singer/DJ Al B. Sure, also entertained the crowd with a song titled “Scorpio” and Minks took a break from hosting the show to perform his rap song “Get Dirty.”
“This was my first year coming to the fashion show,” Shannice Johnson said. “I really enjoyed it, and my row was hype.”
“I’m just relieved this show is over, but there will be a show next year,” said Webster, who’ll be graduating this spring, but plans to come back and help out for the fifth annual show.
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