The day after Labor Day marks the unofficial start to the fall season, and that means fall fashion trends are underway. For some, back-to-school shopping is the most exciting part of starting the
new school year. The Grand Valley State University Fashion Club aims to cater to those students
who love fashion, want to explore trends or simply need help discovering their own style.

The club was founded by Lex Daniels as the Fashion Club in 2008, with the interest to bring people
together to discuss fashion trends, create clothing and hold fashion shows. In 2009, he stepped
down and Megan Malone took over. Malone focused on increasing the club’s membership and
expanded it to students of a variety of fashion-related interests.

“We welcomed any student who had a ‘passion for fashion,’ and this became our internal motto,”
Malone said. “We had students from all different majors join the club, including event planners,
designers, seamstresses, crafters, models and people who were merely interested in discussing
fashion ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts.’”

Today, co-presidents Sherri Anderson and Travis Sadler head the club, and they said they’ve
completely revamped this year’s meetings.

“Our first meeting we will be introducing everyone to our club and what it’s about and also (hold) a
VMA Award Show Fashion Police discussion,” Anderson said. “We encourage discussion and
controversy with civility to help our members develop their opinion of fashion and start to develop
a voice in fashion.”

Both presidents agree that club members have a wide range of styles and fashion knowledge and
that learning self-expression is one of the most important things to gain from the Fashion Club.

“Trends are important to me,” Sadler said. “Self-expression should be important to everyone. You
can do both at once, expressing yourself through a trend. Every type of style changes every season,
so whatever category you fit into, there’s always a new way to express it.”

People of all experience levels are welcome, too.

“None of our members are fashion experts, and the Fashion Club really aims to create a community
of interested students to learn about fashion together,” Anderson added.

Throughout the year, the club will be doing a variety of activities that are both hands-on and
educational.

“We plan fashion shows on campus, create DIY crafts, go on field trips like thrift store shopping; we
do award show outfit reviews, discuss designers and their history, and this year we will probably be
adding some potlucks and movie nights,” Anderson said.

The Fashion Club is currently hosting a contest with the 20/20 Desk called GVBestDressed. Starting
Sept. 15, students can post two entries of their best looks on Twitter with the hashtag
#GVBestDressed to be entered to win a $20 gift from the University Book Store. The contest ends
Sept. 21.

The Fashion Club meets every Tuesday night in the Kirkhof Center room 0072 at 9 p.m.

For more information, visit the club’s Facebook page.

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