San Diego Mesa College’s Fashion Program provided students the opportunity for retail therapy as their latest fundraising event.
During the first week of March, the fashion department hosted their annual shopping event Repeat Boutique. Repeat Boutique featured an on-campus pop-up-shop by the name of UrbanU. The shop was located and operated near the Mesa Commons from Mar. 7-9.
UrbanU consisted of a clothing selection that catered to women and men. There was a broad selection of clothing items, shoes, jewelry, and much more available for purchase. Throughout the event, students could be seen swarming around the clothing racks while trying on the merchandise and praising their recent purchases. The merchandise was donated by students, community members and the American Cancer Association. Most of the upcycled items were complimented by a price tag of $7 or less.
The event served as a creative and trendy method to accumulate funds for the San Diego Mesa College Fashion Program.
One of the students who assisted in coordinating the event was Jordan Cazares. When discussing the importance of the event Cazares stated “Our goals are probably to raise enough money to make trips, or coordinate more events like this.”
Raha Tahmassebi, another student who helped coordinate the event also expressed that the purpose is to “raise funds to do different activities and learn more about the fashion world.”
The event not only raised money towards the Fashion program, but it was also charitable for the American Cancer Association. Following the event, a percentage of the proceeds were allocated to the American Cancer Association. Tahmassebi spoke more about the partnership with the association.
Tahmassebi stated “We did a contract with them. They gave us some of their clothing to sale..So part of the proceeds from those sales goes towards them.” The remaining funds will be used as funding for the San Diego Mesa College Fashion Program.
Towards the end of the event, Cazares was asked to evaluate the events success. Cazares stated “I feel like it is a success, we sold a lot of items.” He believed that the music they had playing helped draw in the crowd. His finale thoughts on the event were “I believe we should do it each and every year.”
Tahmassebi spoke about impact social media had on the event’s success, stating “We personally, especially on the first day a lot of us posted about the pop-up-shop on our instagrams, snapchat, twitter. It got a lot of publicity from that.” She spoke more about hoping the event remains present on campus for years to come. She felt “A lot of students here appreciate it too. The pricing is really good, it’s cute and creative stuff.”
With the annual shopping event accomplished, the Fashion program will now be working towards hosting a fashion show. Tahmassebi referred to the show as the “Gold Scissors Fashion Show”, which is set to occur this May.