Freya Pineda is working to restore people of color’s narratives within the fashion industry, one fashion show at a time.
That was on display Thursday night, May 8, at Cypress College, where its Fashion Club hosted its first event, showcasing cultural identities through fashion design. Pineda, the club’s president, said the goal of the show — which was free to students and the community — was to highlight how fashion can serve as a form of communication.
In front of the college’s art gallery, students modeled clothes from fellow student designers — low-rise pants, floral and satin skirts, pastel hoodies and bubble skirts — alongside student art exhibitions.
Fashion is a means for communication, Pineda said, and she wanted designers to be able to communicate their cultures through their designs.
“It has become an outlet for self-expression,” said Pineda, who studies journalism at Cypress College. “To let someone know you’re the kind of person you are without orally explaining or going into detail on your identity.”
For Gilberto Ortiz Navarro, art and identity go hand-in-hand.
“When people think of fashion, they might think of just clothes, but it’s never just clothes — it’s art at the end of the day,” said Navarro, a student who serves on the Fashion Club board. “I think once I started seeing it like that, I felt more like I identified with certain pieces or that I was actually able to find my own style.”
Pineda said that many fashion trends — baggy jeans and boxers, for example — originated from people of color, while simultaneously being looked down upon by the larger fashion industry.
She wanted to work to end that by giving people of color credit for their trends by showcasing their designs during Thursday’s show.
Pineda said she wanted to explore not only how culture influences fashion, but the importance it has within college campuses.
With efforts to curtail diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college campuses across the country, Pineda said it was important to her to give voice to people of color and the LGBTQ+ community, even if it’s just for an hour or two.
“With everything going on in our current political climate and the attacks on DEI,” Pineda said, “I think it’s very important that a lot of the narratives being told are given back to those experiencing those narratives.”
And fashion is political, Pineda said.
Citing former President Barack Obama’s tan suit controversy or the identifiability of President Donald Trump’s red “Make America Great Again” hat, Pineda said fashion is used to make a statement in all sectors.
The show was intended to help students better connect with Cypress community members through fashion, culture and art, said Pineda.
Thursday’s show had been in preparation for over a year, Pineda said.
The club lost its initial advisor, which delayed its organization and ability to associate itself on campus officially. Now with a new advisor, art history professor Janet Owen Driggs, Pineda said the club became associated this school year and is able to achieve its vision for giving back to students and the community.
Despite its free entry, the show took a lot of coordination to fund.
The club hosted yard sales, received financial support from the campus art gallery and enlisted assistance from Owen Driggs’ art history department. And club members spread the word about the show through social media and flyers on campus, Navarro said.
Pineda said organizing the event is a stepping stone to a future in fashion and journalism and added she hopes to see people of color have a more recognized place within the fashion industry.
“I would love for people of color to get their credit,” Pineda said. “There’s nothing else I would want besides that.”