Infinite Appeal is an on-campus organization that strives to break the barriers of the strict fashion industry – they focus on and celebrate diversity. Last Monday, the Veteran’s Memorial Hall was transformed into a runway as Infinite Appeal hosted their 20th year anniversary fashion show.
Organization president Shanell Jefferson described Infinite Appeal as “a bridgeway for people who are interested in modeling, styling, creative direction, anything like that. It’s a bridgeway for you to gain more experience with that and then take it on outside of college.”
The organization was founded at Georgia State by four women in 1999. At a practice in Student Center West the Friday before the show, Jefferson described Infinite Appeal’s purpose as “[bridging]] the gap between Atlanta streetwear designers, and give them more of an opportunity to showcase their work [on the] Atlanta campus.”
Infinite Appeal is run by the six executive board members, including the president, vice president, executive producer, creative director, female model coordinator and male model coordinator. The institution also has a growing presence with local modeling agencies.
“When it comes to agencies around Atlanta, they know our name, they want to come to our show, and they want to get to know our models. That’s what we’re working on, trying to make Infinite Appeal more of an agency, instead of just a college organization,” Jefferson said.
Opportunity for designers
Infinite Appeal has a strong relationship with Atlanta designers. The institution chooses local designers that create collections for the show each year, including Bully Killer, Vasche, ATL Finest, Jorsani by Jor, Antuh, Six Well, Zonin, Tyrone and Wilborn.
“The way we select designers is based on off of our theme. Our theme [this year] is streetwear meets high fashion,” Jefferson said.
One of the designers for this year’s fashion show was Jordan Thomas, the face of Jorsani by Jor, an Atlanta-based fashion company. Jordan has been designing for a year and sewing for six months.
“Jorsani possesses and displays moral virutals,” Thomas said. “We tap into our inner sexuality, we’re bold, we’re poppin’, we’re empowering. But also we’re not staring away from the idea of being pro-sex. I make things for beautiful girls to be confident and powerful in.”
She also shared her inspiration for her collection featured in the show.
“When you think of X-Men, you think of [Mystique],” Thomas said “So, I wanted them to be like superheroes. I wanted the girls to be unstoppable, because blue is real icy. I did a lot of bodysuits so it would look like it’s their skin, like it’s their power suit.”
This passion was clear at the show.
Popular fabrics that showed up multiple times over the course of the show included satin, velvet and a latex-like material. Recurring trends for men included vests and bomber jackets with colorful prints and embroidery. For women, sheer, sparkles, ruffles, ruching and patchwork were some trends to look forward to.
Designers played with proportion, making lots of jackets and tops cropped and pairing those items with tailored pants, making the models look taller. Some jackets and tops also had ‘80s and ‘90s inspired shapes, including some oversized jackets, as well as some with strong shoulders.
Embrace the rainbow
The show was titled “Spectrum” and the opening walk featured all the models walking out on the runway together to perform choreography and explain the theme. The event was broken into segments of the colors of the spectrum of the rainbow, and each color portrayed a message.
Blue represented fluidity, purple embraced female empowerment, and red displayed embracing one’s sexuality. While walking down the runway, the first and last models of each color had extra time for choreography at the top, middle and end of the runway.
However, all models had moments to make the runway their own and filled with their personality. Some models blew kisses at the crowd, some twerked and some even did tricks such as a back handspring step-out.
Infinite Appeal made an effort to give their audience a true experience with choreography and the songs chosen to go along with each color.
Hosts of the event, student Jalen Clark and alumni Jovan Paige kept the crowd engaged in between segments with short comedic skits. There were also two giveaways during the show. One was from Atlanta Streetwear Market, and the other was from Infinite Appeal’s executive board for the best runway walk from an audience competition.
The embracement of natural hair was also evident throughout the show. The models showcased natural styles for their hair type. Some had beach waves, and some had protective styles such as bantu knots and afro puffs. No model looked like another. Male or female, they all had different body types as well as ethnic backgrounds.
Embracing diversity was one of the focal points of the 20th year anniversary show.
The show closed with some of Infinite Appeal’s alumni, including one of the founders, participating in a celebratory runway walk, along with the current executive board members, fashion designers and hair and makeup stylists.
The future of Infinite Appeal
Infinite Appeal is an expanding organization, and encourages students to try out.
“We have three model calls per semester,” Jefferson said. “We post it on Instagram and flyers are put out. For the first model call, we don’t look for too much skill because we have the whole [first] semester to train them.”
Model and stylist Ruth Mang explains that “Infinite Appeal is a really good startup to any model’s career because it teaches the basics and techniques.”
President Jefferson understands that societal pressures of what models should look like can act as a deterrent when it comes to pursuing a modeling career.
“I want [students] to know that if you feel as if you don’t have what it takes to be a model, that isn’t true,” Jefferson said. “Modeling is viewed when it comes to magazines in society that you have to be skinny, have a certain body time and a certain face structure, and that’s not necessarily the case. If you have a little bit of confidence in yourself, you can be a model.”
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