The University of Massachusetts Multicultural Fashion Show on Sunday, April 9, consisting of eight different campus organizations, featured models walking the runway and student performances.

Hosted by the University Programming Council (UPC), the goal of the show was to highlight the cultures of various groups on campus. The UPC reached out to as many student groups as possible to create a show with a wide range of acts. This was the first multicultural event it hosted.

Emily Kaye, a senior psychology and linguistics major, was one of the event coordinators who helped organize the multicultural student groups who participated.  “I think we are lucky that people responded very positively and wanted to participate,” Kaye said.

The event was an opportunity for both audience members and performers to express themselves and their cultures.

“We have some people that are dancing, we have some models, so everyone is sort of doing their own thing to contribute, and people are wearing clothes at the event to also showcase where they are from,” event coordinator Shehreen Rashid, a sophomore economics and political science major said.

The show opened with a performance from UMass dance group ALTITUDE, who performed for two songs. They were followed by the student group Hindu Yuva and the Indian Student Union, who each had models walking the runway.

The UMass Belly Dance Club performed, followed by a showing of pieces designed by cast(e) eyes, a student-made brand that comments on the caste system in India and empowers unknown narratives.

Nanditha Kumar, a sophomore biology major and UPC event coordinator, explained that “cast(e) eyes is this brand … which is part of a lot of South Asian groups on campus. It is about the caste system in India … and abolishing all those negative things … and connecting people based on their roots.”

After cast(e) eyes, the Vietnamese Student Union walked the runway, followed by another runway walk by the sorority Delta Xi Phi. The K-Pop Dance Club closed out the show with six different dances that showed off different styles of K-Pop dance.

Last semester, Kaye said that the UPC collaborated with Taiwanese and Chinese Students’ Association for the Red Thread Banquet, which was the first cultural collaboration for UPC. This semester, UPC “wanted to do more of a large-scale multicultural collaboration event, where we can host as many cultural groups as possible,” Kaye said.

Rashid hopes to make this a yearly event, looking to incorporate more student groups, continuing developing their relationships.

 “Since multicultural is a very new branch in UPC, this is the first event of this kind that we have had. I’d love to see it become a tradition,” Rashid said. “And next year, I hope to incorporate even more cultures, just to be able to celebrate different cultures and diversity at UMass.”

Eve Neumann can be reached at [email protected].