Couture dresses made from burlap sacks were a feature of the “Spring Into Fashion Show” at Sacramento State hosted by the Student Fashion Association Friday.

The show featured more than 14 student designers who each created their own collections by hand.

As the upbeat music played in the background, student models of every body type walked the runway to showcase the talent of the 14 chosen apparel marketing and design majors.

“I liked the fact that the show had a lot of different body types,” said Ausha McGee, sophomore sociology major. “Everyone was out there, not just size zeros.”

One clothing line that stood out was “The Cubism Movement” by student designer and junior psychology major Noognuv Thao.

Her line was the one featuring burlap sacks.

“I chose burlap because I wanted something that wouldn’t distract from the original design,” Thao said. This line expressed my style; I like to create things that you wouldn’t really see every day.”

Amanda Xiong, one of the models of this line and student at Consumes River College, said Thao took a chance when using burlap as her fabric of choice for her line.

“Burlap is something that you shouldn’t really use, but she crossed that boundary,” Xiong said. “This is a different item I am wearing, it is so unique.”

Since Thao used such an unconventional fabric with edgy designs, her line was definitely more advanced than the other lines.

“No one has this dress or anything like it,” Xiong said. “As a model, I would say this is the most extreme out of the show.”

Thao said her inspiration for the clothing line came from the cubism movement that she refers to as the Picasso era.

“I wanted to have a really basic visual art form of what the cubism era meant to me,” Thao said. “It’s all about art and making the curves of the pieces align with the features of the individual, just like Picasso did with his odd shapes.”

As for burlap material, Thao said she wanted to use a more natural material to represent the canvas the artists of the cubism era.

“I wanted to represent what these genius artists painted on,” Thao said. “The material is also edgy and creative – something else I wanted my line to be.”

Instead of majoring in apparel marketing and design like the other designers, Thao is majoring in psychology.

“I chose psychology as my major because I wanted to have a secure foundation for my career; fashion is known as a hard career to get into,” Thao said. “Even though I am a psychology major, my own passion and experience of fashion has allowed me to be successful in this show.”

Another impressive line at the fashion show was “A Flash of Hmong” by student designer and senior apparel marketing and design major Nkaujer Thor.

Thor’s line featured skirts and dresses that incorporated the Hmong culture through the fabrics used in each garment.

“My culture was definitely my inspiration for this line,” Thor said. “I didn’t want to be literal so I took the striped fabric and mixed it with different patterns.”

What made Thor’s line so interesting is how she used the same fabrics for every garment, just in different ways.

“Each piece has the stripes and floral fabrics, I just used different designs,” Thor said. “I was kind of scared to do stripes with floral but I felt it worked really well.”

Thor said being a first-time designer was nerve-wracking.

“Once you see your finished pieces go down the runway, you lose those nervous emotions,” Thor said. “You get this feeling of accomplishment to know you created those pieces.”

Amara Carey, freshman apparel marketing and design major, modeled one of the fashions from Thor’s line.

Carey wore a dress with a white top and floral bottom, and a striped belt to tie the whole look together.

As for her future career in fashion, Thor said this show, along with being a member of the club, is helping her achieve her goals.

“This is helping me by getting me out there,” Thor said. “I am networking with people involved in the field and this is giving me the experience that I need to succeed after college.”

Carey said being a model in this show is also helping her achieve her goals of a career in the fashion industry as well.

She said one of the people involved in the show came up to her after the runway presentation and asked her to model in an upcoming fashion show at the Capitol.

“This proves that you never know who’s going to be at show to look at you,” Carey said. “I definitely feel doors opening for my future.”

ErinRogers can be reached at [email protected]