Grade 12 students of Earl Marriott Secondary will be channeling their inner Cindy Crawfords, Gisele Bundchens and – perhaps for the guys – their Derek Zoolanders, for the EMS Grad Fashion Show April 19.
Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door, which opens at 6:30 p.m. The show gets underway at 7. The event is a fundraiser for EMS Dry Grad.
This year’s edition of the annual show is themed “Back in the Day,” and features grads showing off the apparel of 15 clothing retailers – mostly from the Semiahmoo Peninsula – as they strut their stuff down the runway to the tune of 18 songs that were hits between their birth year of 1993 and their grad year of 2011.
“We have songs from 1993, then it skips to 1998 and then every year up to our grad year, and it’s pretty much the main song of each year that was chosen,” said Jenna Warne, one of the students who’s helping organize the event.
The songs – selected via a Facebook vote by the grad class – were all Billboard Top 100 songs the year they were released.
The 122 student models will be split into 18 groups, with each group stepping and sashaying to music representing a particular year in their lives, from ‘N Sync, The Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls early in the show, all the way up to Katy Perry and Justin Bieber.
“Grads weren’t forced to do it – it’s just anyone who wanted to, and there’s not very many guys. It’s mostly girls,” said Warne, as she watched some of the few brave male models in her grad class get fitted last week for the Moore’s suits they will be showing off.
Other students have taken on supportive roles, MCing and co-ordinating the lights and music.
Local stores featured in the show include Mela Boutique, JJ & Whiskey, Warren Boutique and Peninsula Runners.
The students recently started running rehearsals every lunch hour at school, and some of the organizers like Warne, or Hailey Daggitt, who was in charge of ticket sales and co-ordinating the music for each group, have been working hard on the show since February.
The night’s fun isn’t limited to fashion.
“We have some really great raffle prizes and silent auction stuff,” said Warne. “We have a Greece vacation getaway and a signed Canucks jersey. I don’t think they did anything like that last year.”
The jersey is signed by the Sedin twins and Roberto Luongo. A weekend for two at the Pan Pacific Hotel Vancouver will also be auctioned off. All prizes were donated by parents of the grad class. Tickets are on sale at EMS – 15751 16 Avenue – in the commons area at lunch.
