Jefferson College to Host Thrifty Fashion Show

Dressing professionally should not require dressing expensively. At least, that is what Deb Shores, resource advisor at Jefferson College, believes.

For the fourth year in a row, Shores and a team of the college’s students are proving this through an alternative fashion show.

“Clothing exchanges have been done a lot, and we do have a closet exchange on both Wednesday and Thursday,” Shores said. “But our big event is the Frugal Fashion Show.”

Designed to display easy ways of dressing professionally without spending a fortune, the show features about 15 student models of different ages, sizes and styles.

“During the first year, I could only find a few people interested in putting together ensembles and modeling the clothes,” Shores said. “Now, the word has really spread, and I’ve had a bunch of people volunteer.”

With only one ensemble per model, the volunteers are supposed to go out and create the outfit with clothing from shops like Back to the Rack, The Padded Hanger and even Goodwill.

One volunteer model for this year’s show is Donna Hassell, a 51-year-old welding student at Jefferson College. Participating in the Frugal Fashion Show for the first time in 2010, Hassell mentioned she originally volunteered to earn extra credit for a class.

“When I modeled last year, I had no idea how nice and new many of the clothes from Goodwill actually are,” Hassell said. “Both times I’ve done this, my outfits have been 15 dollars or less, and almost all of the clothes were still brand new.”

The Frugal Fashion takes place March 2 at noon in Jefferson College’s campus. The event is free and open to the public.