“The reason I love fashion is that you can live vicariously through clothing, you can tell your story.” – Riley Hynes (Class of 2019)
Black United Body hosted yet another fabulous annual fashion show last weekend, with over 200 students crowding the runway in the Executive Dining Room! The success of the show was owed to all the major planning that went into it, which included coming up with a theme, reaching out to designers and staging companies, as well as getting all of the needed models- including our very own Bentley students like Daiana Alonso, Daniela Martinez and Essmaa Litim (Class of 2018). We were lucky and got feedback from Whitney Jules, the fashion show director, who added that the show was “really fun” and a great experience.
After the show, we interviewed Riley Hynes, one of the models that played an integral role in the event. “I always wanted to share my passion for fashion, it is something that I have always loved” Riley told us. His words illustrated that through initiatives like BUB’s fashion show; Bentley students can come together and embrace their love and passion for fashion.
Trying to get more of an insight into Riley’s fashion choices, we wanted to hear more about the outfit he chose for the ‘favorites outfit’ portion of the evening. He took us through his wardrobe of ‘simply complex’, which are outfits containing black and white with not a lot of color. “It makes the fit of the item become more apparent to show my style,” he stated. He also told us that he focuses on a lot of classics when choosing his outfits, which we found really interesting. His 1930’s mixed contemporary pieces could start a trend here at Bentley!
If you were at the fashion show and didn’t get a chance to get all the names of the designers, we got you! The designers that were featured at the show included KOLS, the Yanell Galva Collection, Koko Nanga, Deviant Rebel and Art Wear. and Winston G. Smith.
Other than the fashion show, Black United Body has hosted successful events like “Navigating Bentley as a Minority” talks, the Graduate School information session as well as “Idle Wild”, which celebrated Black history month! To find out how they do it all, we sat down with Sheldon Davis, president of Bentley’s Black United Body on campus. Sheldon has been involved in BUB since freshman year when he acquired the position of freshman liaison. During his sophomore year he became more involved on campus after feeling that he wanted to do more to make other underrepresented students on campus feel like they have their own safe space within Bentley. He explained that “at Bentley University, that is what we are about, we are about progression and getting bigger and better. It is important to use resources and tools on campus to work together”.
The end of this blog goes to a special shout out to all those involved in creating the fabulous BUB fashion show: fashion director Daiana Alonso, fashion show director Whitney Jules, modeling coach Malayshia Hardy, senior liaisons Linda Dossantoes and Genesis Dominguez, production secretary Regina Jean-Noel, media specialist Lawrence Greenidge, lighting specialist Jeffery bolivar, and the lead photographer Can Ahtam. We look forward to what you have in store for us next year!
For Upcoming Events: Look out for BUB’s “Crossing the Barriers” event in April
