Wednesday, April 13, 2022
  Around Campus, Community

By Amanda Alaniz

EDINBURG, TEXAS – Strike a pose. Vogue.

Ready to talk fashion? Members of UTRGV House of Fashion, the university’s student club for fellow enthusiasts, are more than happy to talk style -- and sustainable fashion choices. 

The club, where UTRGV students can chat about the local clothing scene and everything fashion-related, is holding its first fashion show Thursday, April 14, at the UTRGV Library Auditorium on the Edinburg Campus. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and the event is free and open to the public.

The theme of the show is Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Fashion, inspired by the South Texas culture. Club members are expected to showcase their skills in modeling, styling, makeup and hair.

The show is collaboration with six small fashion businesses: RagzRevenge, modern day hippy.vtg, Baby Arcade, 8VisisionVantage, Sacks Thrift Avenue and Viva Vintage. Models will be wearing pieces from each shop.

Hania Rocio, a UTRGV senior mass communication major from Hidalgo, is the UTRGV House of Fashion’s president. The club, under the direction of faculty advisor Jennifer Saxton, associate professor in the UTRGV Department of Theatre, was founded in 2020, before the pandemic, Rocio said.

The House of Fashion’s mission is to spread fashion culture and art to the community, and “culturally enrich the minds of UTRGV’s students and the RGV by organizing fashion shows, runways and photoshoots.”

House of Fashion flyer
(Photo Credit: Priscylla Guzman)

There are currently 15 to 20 members involved in the club from different disciplines. Rocio said the show’s theme came up during a meeting discussion last semester, when House of Fashion’s art director, Nolan Navarro, pitched RGV Fashion. The club agreed.

“Everyone thought it was a really cool idea to show all the different fashion styles that we have in the RGV,” she said. “People think we are a small community, but there is a lot of diversity. There’s a lot of diversity when it comes to fashion, and we wanted to explore that with the fashion show.”

She hopes people walk away from the show willing to experience and acknowledge all the fashion styles in their community. And by partnering with local secondhand and vintage clothing shops, she said, people will go out and see they can find nice clothes.

“We want to promote purchasing secondhand clothing because there is a lot of fast fashion going on and that is harmful for the environment,” she said. “Instead of buying clothes, purchase second hand. It’s something we want to do with this fashion show – spread the message that fashion can be sustainable for the environment.”

Visitors are encouraged to wear their best attire in support of the student organization’s efforts to put together its first show.

Rocio said they hope to host more fashion events next semester.

For more information about the show and/or UTRGV House of Fashion, email utrgvhouseoffashion@gmail.com. The club can also be found on Instagram @utrgvhof and Facebook.



ABOUT UTRGV

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.

UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.