BSA fashion show is rooted in legacy | Culture

When you watch the models walk in the Black Students’ Association fashion show to the sound of students chanting and cheering, you know you’re a part of something special.

Over 150 students and community members came together at Museum London on Nov. 22 for this year’s highly anticipated BSA fashion show, grounded in the theme “rooted in legacy.”

This year’s fashion show featured performances by London-based music collective Global Grooves and art by various students. Madison Fisher, a fourth-year sociology and criminology student and the show’s creative director, said collaborating with different groups “elevated it to a new level of fashion and community.”

The show was divided into three stages tied to the theme. Fisher took to the stage to introduce each one, calling the show a “testament to the power of community.” 

“This is a story of growth, survival and radiant brilliance. Each detail of the show is an ode to culture, identity and community, to the Black community, whose strength, ingenuity, vision, have built legacies from the beginning of time,” said Fisher. 

The first section to take root was soil. Fisher explained this stage focuses on the growth that happens beneath the surface and in the past — coming from a community of people who survived, created and paved the way for future generations.

“Nothing buried is ever lost. It is only preparing to rise through an Afrofuturist lens. Soil connects us to our ancestors while holding the seeds of our future. It carries their struggles, their trials and their wisdom. It is where love and community thrive,” said Fisher.

Models wore warm, earthy tones and adorned their hair with soil, plants and flowers. From the first strut, they radiated confidence, coolness and power, dancing and taking up space. From the clothing to the jewelry to the props to the movement, you wouldn’t know it was a student fashion show.

Six months in the making, Fisher said the theme was influenced by subjects she learned about in her classes, including Black feminist thought, Afrofuturism and intersectionality.

“When we add intersectionality and understanding of other groups and each other, I feel like we can come together to achieve so many things. So that’s what I really wanted to show to the audience, but I wanted to put it in a way that you didn’t really think of, that it’s all around you,” said Fisher.

After soil showed how the community is grounded together, they stepped into fire — the blaze and the rebellion. Fire, Fisher said, is “a form of resistance, a refusal to disappear, a refusal to be silenced and a refusal to be pushed within the margins of someone else’s story.” 

Music from Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar set the tone as models stepped out in bright yellows, reds and oranges. Unlike the calmness of soil, the fashion for fire was sharp, bold and untamed, with gold tones and jackets adorned with flames. 

“When doors are closed, we forge our own, and when history is erased, we rewrite it with a flame. Fire is the energy in our voices when we speak truth, the glow to our skin under the sun and the powerful imagination that allows the Black youth to envision worlds we have never been able to see,” said Fisher.

During intermission, the BSA served a generous buffet from Yaya’s Kitchen. Though billed as appetizers that came with attendees’ tickets, the cultural dishes — from African peanut stew topped with plantain chips to beef suya — felt more like a feast. 

The fashion show wrapped up with a journey through the stars. Fisher took the stage one last time and poetically described stars as guides, memories, futures, constellations and reminders that “imagination is liberation.”

“Stars are ancient yet newborn, holding memories and possibilities of the past and the future all in the same breath,” said Fisher. 

As SZA’s “All The Stars” boomed, models emerged in metallic hues, wire-wrapped braids and celestial accessories. It was where Afrofuturism shone brightest. 

Kaya Muvuti, a fourth-year BMOS student and BSA co-president, said that with the evolution of the fashion show year after year, the theme and stages this year help set the trend for the next generation. 

“I would say that each was represented like a big pillar of the Black community with cultural significance in history, and to be able to express it through art and fashion is one of the ways that we connect in with our past as well as embrace the future,” he said.

Going into this year’s fashion show, Fisher and the team wanted to make sure everyone was heard or acknowledged in some type of way — showcasing and uplifting all voices.

“I feel like as more of a masculine-presenting queer Black woman, it’s a little hard to find representation within university communities,” said Fisher.

She believes that by uplifting underrepresented voices, it gives them an opportunity and a sense of joy to look forward to.

“There is a world out here for us, and just because it’s not shown on a mainstream stage or commercials or media, it does not mean it doesn’t exist. We’re here, and we’ve always been here. So I just wanted people to have the opportunity to see that and really feel it in the show,” said Fisher.