Towards the end of the winter quarter at Seattle Pacific University, students’ time can easily be eaten up by studying, test-taking and all sorts of stress-inducing activities. Luckily for them, MODE is here to help ease the tension.
On Tuesday, Feb. 20, SPU’s fashion club MODE put on their yearly event, the Fashion Week Party, a night filled with fashion-oriented activities, games and events. While everything at the event had a focus on fashion, the night was open to everyone.
Throughout the event, there was no shortage of plans on how to entertain. Activities included a fashion-focused bingo, collaging, watching fashion week videos and even a mock fashion show using newspapers as materials. When everything was said and done, the event wrapped up as a success, and students left satisfied with their night.
Every event at SPU takes a lot of planning to put together. Katie Taggart, a fifth-year apparel design and apparel merchandising student who serves as President of MODE feels a dedication to bringing fun events to campus is what makes the event so important.
“There’s a big fashion community on campus, and the fashion department is an important part of campus as well,” Taggart said. “I think that events involving them are important. I also think that fun is necessary, and having a day to have fun and build community is definitely important as well, and that’s what it’s about.”
Though putting together an event all about having a good time may sound like a cakewalk, it is not without its challenges. As Taggart explained, many factors cropped up during the planning process that made setting everything up a bit of a challenge at times.
“It hasn’t been a massive challenge or anything, but some things like time management have been sort of a problem,” Taggart said. “There are classes being taught in the labs we’re using coinciding with when we’re trying to put things together, so we’ve had to have everything cleaned up in time very quickly. Things like that happen, but it’s been pretty straightforward.”
One of the advantages that comes with the planning process of the Fashion Week Party is that it is a yearly event, which allows club leaders to learn what works and what does not from year to year. Second-year fashion design student and MODE social media manager Lupe Escovedo explained how this was a key factor in making [2024]’s event as successful as possible.
“We made sure to take some feedback from people and use it for the event,” Escovedo said. “We decided to do more games, more group activities and just tried to make a more group-oriented dynamic. So instead of making it individual, we decided to have a bunch of games for the event.”
Growth has been the highlight of the planning period for multiple MODE leaders. Fourth-year apparel design student and model manager for MODE Jady Chavez said that constantly improving themselves and coming up with great new ideas made planning a lot of fun for her.
“My favorite part has been the process of how we’ve been making a lot of changes and growing from last year,” Chavez said. “Last year’s event was outside and it was questionable if the weather would work. This time there’s a lot more stability in our plan, which is great. Just making sure that we have stability and being sure that things are going to work has been great for us.”
With the conclusion of another successful event for MODE, spirits and hopes for the future were as high as ever amongst leadership. As Taggart explained, they hope that students will continue to support their events and find opportunities through their work to kick back and enjoy themselves from time to time.
“I just hope they enjoy the event,” Taggart said. “It’s not a world-ending event or anything, it’s just an event for everyone to get together and have a good time and enjoy themselves. I hope that everyone has fun, leaves with a new friend, finds a space to interact, that sort of thing. That’s really what we’re hoping for here.”
