Career Services partnered with AIAS club (American Institute of Architecture Students) to host it’s very own ‘Dress for Success’ business professional fashion show on March 5. The event was hosted in preparation for the Joliet Regional Career & College Fair, which the school will host on March 26.
The event took place on the school’s main bridge, where roughly 34 models consisting of staff, and students walked down the runway.
The show opened with an informational Do’s and Don’ts presentation, discussing acceptable and unacceptable attire to wear in a professional setting. The discussion was led by Career Services career coach, Aida Martinez. Martinez shared tips on interview etiquette along with a display of favorable clothing options to prepare for an interview.
“You always want to wear neutral colors for your interviews…black, navy, and grey,” Martinez told the crowd. Martinez said if anyone was uncertainty about professional attire, Career Services doors are open and ready to help.
Following the presentation, models wearing different styles of professional attire commanded the runway, while audience members cheered for each model’s unique poses and attire. To close the event, Employment Advisor Frank Biancorosso led a ‘How to tie a tie” workshop, where many students were able to perfect the skill.
One of show’s models was JJC second-year student Luciano Soria Avila, a member of the AIAS club.
“I wanted to do something different” Avila said.
His already extensive experience attending previous networking events led him to crave something outside of his comfort zone. Avila reflects on his moment of spotlight in a positive manner feeling empowered and grateful for the opportunity.
The idea of hosting a fashion show in this case is credited to Maria Rafac, a JJC architecture professor sustainability coordinator. Rafac said she once walked in a fashion show hosted by a Fashion Design program that is no longer present at JJC. This experience helped her birth the idea of a ‘Dress for Succes’ fashion show.
She mentions her main objective was “trying to do something unique and different, and that’s part of being an architect, is always like trying to reinvent.”
This theme of innovation was also present with co-organizer, Diego Macias, another second-year student member of the AIAS club.
“One of our biggest goals was, make it fun; the goal was always to create an interactive experience not just a simple presentation,” Macias said.
Both Rafac and Macias expressed their major interest in reaching broader audiences, allowing for casting to be open to anyone and everyone in the JJC community. Rafac stressed the importance of coming together to accurately represent what dressing ‘business professional’ looked like for everyone no matter the background. The pair worked together to plan and execute this show for close to two months, with only one rehearsal for the team a week prior to the show.
The team was able to make use of items from the pop-up closet located on lower-level J building containing free clothing for the JJC community, a project also organized by Rafac. This allowed audience members to obtain clothing worn by models for free if they liked.
It is still unclear whether or not this will become an annual event. However, Rafac expressed plenty of interest in preparing another ‘Dress for Success’ fashion show in the near future.
