Hands to his face in shock, Josemanuel Vazquez hurried down the Hook’d Magazine spring fashion show runway when he found out he was the magazine’s cover model. A junior civil engineering major, Vazquez proved a perfect fit for the spring magazine’s theme “Sanctum,” though he hadn’t known it.
Hook’d Magazine hosted their third annual spring fashion show on Saturday at Dottiewood Studios. The student-organized show displayed a series of student designers and models in under an hour before revealing the cover of their spring magazine issue. With guests filling the venue, the team of students showcased their hard work and confidence they built throughout the experience.
“When you talk to people about wanting to pursue an artistic career, you almost get judgment from people, whereas you get praise from (pursuing) a STEM career, so being able to do both things at once shows you can succeed either way,” Vazquez said. “I’ve grown so much confidence from (working with Hook’d). … It took a lot for me to start doing this, and I’m really glad I put myself out there.”
Vazquez walked fiercely down the runway in flowy blue-gray and white tie-dyed clothing with large turquoise blocks strung in a necklace. As a STEM major, he said the show’s theme of “Structure” inspired him.
“When we first heard the theme was ‘Structure,’ I thought of angles, contorting your body, so that has to do something with math,” Vasquez said. “And the way I’m going to implement it is just to move my body around, take everything I’ve learned from Hook’d Magazine and apply it on the runway.”
One of the other models, Caitlin Knight, similarly saw her confidence grow through her time with Hook’d and looked forward to showcasing that to her family and friends during the show. She stunned the runway in a cropped vest, silver metal jewelry and smokey makeup.
“When I was growing up, I feel like (my family and friends) thought I wasn’t very confident,” Knight said. “So, having this and them being able to see me being super confident and everything (is) very fun.”
Event staffer Daniela Osorio said she felt excited for the show, which had given her the chance to demonstrate her event planning skills, after catching a sneak peek of the models in their pieces prior to the event.
“It’s cool because everyone gets to flex their muscle in different ways,” Osorio said. “There’s a lot of parts to Hook’d.”
The audience graced the Hook’d Magazine team with an eruption of applause at the end of the show’s large-scale production.
“Showing the things you can do in modeling, fashion, runway, designing, styling and still being successful in your (conventional) career. I think that shows ambition,” Vazquez said.
