Benton sustainable fashion show revamps the runway – The Student Life

On the evening of Oct. 24, students flocked to Pomona College’s sustainable fashion show “Harvesting Tomorrow’s Wardrobe,” filling the chairs surrounding the makeshift runway at the Benton Museum of Art. The warm glow from the museum’s interior offered a respite from mid-semester malaise. Guests formed a lively border around the runway and camera flashes twinkled in the periphery.  

The show, a collaboration between the Walker Free Room, Pomona College EcoReps and the Benton, continues the 5Cs’ tradition of incorporating social issues into fashion. With fashion so closely tied to consumerism, the designers sought to combat the fashion industry’s cycles of rapid consumption and waste.

Four groups of designers showcased their collections, and two groups recruited student runway models to join the designers as they walked. Models emerged from the belly of the Benton and strode or danced between the lines of attendees, displaying their attitude and attire. 

The buzz among the audience was palpable. Applause, cheers, “oohs” and “ahhs” came from all directions.

“It was super cool to see everyone’s work, especially the models because they add their own pizzazz to each walk,” Evelyn Salgado PO ’27, who attended last spring’s runway, said. 

Veteran and first-time designers showcased collections of varying sizes and levels of intricacy. Some looks were sparse, worn by models with dark eye makeup and intense, brooding expressions. By contrast, a harvest-inspired collection brought forth colorful pastoral wear, where models embodied the essence of a halcyon autumn afternoon with their carefree walks.

The thematic continuity of each collection was strong, in plain defiance of the limitations sustainability presented. Ruth Metcalfe PO ’25, a designer, said she found those limitations energizing and liberating rather than constricting. 

“There’s so much fabric and clothes that already exist,” Metcalfe said. “It’s really amazing to get to turn something that would otherwise kind of be thrown away into something that people like really love and enjoy … and feel good in.”

Metcalfe’s collection, inspired by the night sky, exposed the sustainable side of the clothing. Two of her dresses had a theme of white additions to dark base layers: one with an open seam motif, reflecting the process of reconstruction. Bobby pins speckled the area around white rifts in the dark colored fabric like a field of stars. The other flaunted a multi-layered ragged hem, added to make a reused fabric less transparent.

“It was cool because it turned something that you couldn’t necessarily wear out and about into something that you can,” Metcalfe said. 

The collections brimmed with evidence of the past lives of their fabrics — patchwork sewn onto thrifted pieces, repurposed cut-up fabrics and painted, distressed or repaired pieces. All the designers frankensteined their second-hand materials into collections which came alive throughout the show.

Zyad Sibai PO ’27, a dancer skilled in styles from modern to hip-hop to Afro, was Metcalfe’s movement director, model and creative partner for her collection.

“[Sustainable fashion] allows you to not really care much about how much [the clothing] costs and to use it and see where it goes,” Sibai said. “If you end up losing out on that piece, it’s fine — it was sitting in a closet. You might as well have shot your shot with it.” 

Metcalfe created her first collection in the two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, integrating themes catalyzed by the shock and horror of the ruling. She said this collection was not inspired by necessity. 

“There’s a lot of beauty in the night and a lot of perspective you can get from looking at [it],” Metcalfe said. “When I think about the night, I have a lot of fond memories. I went abroad and did a sailing trip. And on that trip, we spent a lot of time with the night sky.” 

One would be remiss in imagining only dark colors. Rather than focusing solely on visual aspects, her creative process centered on evoking emotions and personalities. In collaboration with Sibai, Metcalfe followed a process she called “conceptualization mapping:” interrogating a character, a feeling, or an experience.

“[Sibai] helped me figure out one of the looks was kind of inspired by the feeling of coldness on your skin, about snow falling at night; how silent that is,” Metcalfe said, referring to the look of Abimbola Adekoya PO ’25, a white shirt with a blue star. 

Sibai’s runway look consisted of two laced sleeves that bound together, a beaded top, a bandana cover-up, brown denim, black boots and a keychain necklace.

“My character was more about being the dark and the unknown,” Sibai said. “Our conceptualization mapping was a lot more of being able to know, for me at least, as a movement director, how to weave in the characters. In the walk, in the poses and in the essence that they would carry on their face.”

One might assume that Metcalfe’s collection took years of rigorous planning, but that wasn’t exactly the case. 

“My creative process with these fashion shows is I kind of just sign up for it, without having pieces made,” Metcalfe said. “It gives me a deadline to make all these pieces and then it’s actually really fun because then I just let my creativity do its thing.” 

While Metcalfe has more experience than many, she stressed the feasibility of design. She believes that anyone willing to commit can achieve similar results, even without a complex hundred-step plan or a fully-formed, divine vision.

“Creativity is just this wonderful thing that I don’t feel like can really be encapsulated in words,” Metcalfe said. “It’s a combination of you, the universe, some vision you have, and you just have to let that flow and trust the process.”

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