In an age in which consumerism is high and sustainability is on the forefront of young people’s minds, and in a city where fashion education is scarce, a group of students at Santa Barbara City College have turned their love of fashion into an opportunity to educate and bring people together. With their theme “A Look Through Time,” the SBCC Fashion Club’s Spring Fashion Show imagines a future of American life based in community and sustainability.
Shutting down Downtown State Street with crowds of stylish models, designers, and onlookers, Fashion Club presidents Kassie Tui and Hayes Phillips partnered with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art to show off their creativity on the museum’s pristine steps. All of the collections in the show were designed using clothing and accessories thrifted from secondhand stores in the Santa Barbara area — such as Loveworn and Renaissance Consignment — or donated to the club. The club cultivated a show that took the audience through American fashion eras from the ’60s to the present, with zero pieces manufactured in the last year — a powerful statement against the growing proliferation of the fast fashion industry.
“I want the designers to have complete freedom,” said Tui. “I said, ‘Choose what speaks to you in this era.’”
As the models strutted from the arched entrance of the museum, the designers showed off their knowledge of fashion history with bold hair and makeup to match.
The show opened in the ’60s, with models displaying bold paisley prints and colored tights. Then, it transitioned into the ’70s, with crocheted garments from the SBCC Crochet Club, peace signs, and bell bottoms signaling the unconventional artistic expression of the flower child movement.
The SBCC Fashion Club hosted their Spring Fashion Show “A Look Through Time” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. | Photo: Luke Alonso 
The SBCC Fashion Club hosted their Spring Fashion Show “A Look Through Time.” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. | Photo: Luke Alonso 
The SBCC Fashion Club hosted their Spring Fashion Show “A Look Through Time.” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. | Photo: Violet Hamor 
The SBCC Fashion Club hosted their Spring Fashion Show “A Look Through Time.” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. | Photo: Luke Alonso 
The SBCC Fashion Club hosted their Spring Fashion Show “A Look Through Time.” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. | Photo: Luke Alonso 
The SBCC Fashion Club hosted their Spring Fashion Show “A Look Through Time.” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. | Photo: Violet Hamor 
The SBCC Fashion Club hosted their Spring Fashion Show “A Look Through Time” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. | Photo: Luke Alonso 
The SBCC Fashion Club hosted their Spring Fashion Show “A Look Through Time.” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. | Photo: Luke Alonso 
The SBCC Fashion Club hosted their Spring Fashion Show “A Look Through Time.” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. | Photo: Violet Hamor 
| Photo: Luke Alonso
In the ’80s, model Gia Oliff was a showstopper in a Madonna-inspired tutu and huge feathers, a look styled by Tui. Designers opened the ’90s with some anti-establishment grunge in platform shoes, leather, and denim on denim on denim. Then a crowd favorite of Gen Z, the early aughts came with a Y2K revival in low-rise jeans and bedazzled everything.
From the knits and ballet flats of the twee 2010s, to the familiar, trendy styling of contemporary fashions, the show closed with the designers’ interpretations of the future of fashion, ones layered with visions of technology, politics, and American ideals.
The closing look of the night, styled by Tui and modeled by Phillips, utilized androgyny in a layered parachute skirt and pants as well as a vintage American flag sewn into a durag to reimagine Lady Columbia — the goddess personification of America in all its strife and strength.
“I feel like there’s been a bit of discourse around Washington, D.C., and changing it,” said Tui, referencing a political climate in which liberty for immigrants, people of color, and queer individuals is in flux. “This is Lady Columbia reimagined, and what the future of America means to me is seen through Hayes’s fit.”
“Columbia is a symbol of America’s systemic justice and liberty,” added Phillips.
To both Tui and Phillips, fashion education that centers on intersectionality and mutual aid has been paramount to the club. Beyond the outfits, the community present at the spring show shined the most. From passing strangers on campus, the club members have become models and designers, creating collections out of their own clothing and makeup, production crews and photographers, and friends lining the streets screaming support.
Sadly, the Fashion Club’s co-presidents know that their reign cannot last forever and used the evening to look toward the end of their respective tenures. Closing the show, Phillip’s Lady Columbia turned to the crowd and urged them to take up the mantle.
“The future of fashion is up to you guys.”
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