Sacramento State’s Asian Culture Club will be hosting a Culture Fashion Show Friday to showcase the diverse culture of students on campus.

The event will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the Foothill Suite located in the third floor of the University Union. This event is free to attend for Sac State students and community members alike, though attendees must RSVP through the club’s form.

“We are trying to do this Culture Fashion Show to showcase the fashion from every culture,” said Jomari Fernandez, president of the Asian Culture Club.

Club members said they wanted to host this type of event because they want to increase diversity awareness on campus.

“It’s on leadership initiative and appreciating diversity,” said Cheng Thao, treasurer of the Asian Culture Club.  

This is will be the first time the club will be hosting this type of event. The group wanted to come up with something special to showcase the large amount of cultures Sacramento has to offer, Fernandez said.

“At first we were thinking a competition for the fashion show but at the same time we didn’t want this to cause any drama,” Fernandez said. “At first it was just specific for Asian cultures but then we opened it up to other cultures to, for example Muslim Students Association and other clubs.”

Fernandez said the fashion show will include around nine models walking up and down a red carpet, followed by a series of cultural performances.

“It will be traditional clothing that you would wear at annual year event, for example at Hmong New Years we have clothing that we specifically wear,” Thao said.

Although some traditional clothing can be expensive, the club has offered an alternative that will allow for more students to participate.

“If people can’t afford to buy the traditional clothes, because they can be expensive, we created a committee that will be in charge of recreating those clothes, that way those who want to be models can participate,” Fernandez said.

The club went on a year and a half hiatus but has reorganized in order to offer a space for all students.

“This is the first semester we actually revived the club after one and half years,” Fernandez said. “This semester we decided to open it to so we could represent all the cultures in Asia because there’s other Asian clubs here but they only represent specific countries.”

Fernandez said the club was started in 2011 after a group of art students came together to explore Asian cultures and Asian art. Over time, the club evolved to talking about religions, social classes and government, to expanding the conversation about a diverse range of topics in Asian cultures.

“But like in Asia there is 100 plus countries, that’s why we want to represent them because most people in here they are only familiar with Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean and Vietnamese (cultures) and they’re not familiar with other cultures so that’s why we are trying to help educate them,” Fernandez said. “That’s like our number one priority this time we are doing this culture fashion show, so we can showcase the fashion from every culture.”

The Asian Culture Club invites anyone who is interested in their club to attend their meetings which are every Monday from 6 to 7 p.m. in Alpine Hall 235.