Strike a pose! Now walk!

"Truly a successful night for Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor's first fashion show," said Daisy Lopez, coordinator and three year PACE member. "We put a lot of hard work into this and it
all finally paid off. I'm really proud of us."

The three hour fashion event that was held at Jack Adams Hall on Feb.23 was a night full of voguing, posing combined with runway modeling, musical performances, fashion challenges and shopping.

"It was so much fun and I had a real good time," said 23 year old Julz Padojno who was a finalist in the fashion challenge contest during the show. "I have a lot of friends who are in PACE, so I try and support them as much as I can."

Prior to the models owning the runway, Eric Andres, PACE's head activity coordinator, gave a quick spill on the background of the designer and the significance of the clothing.

First to take the stage was Random Artistic Design followed by Ultra Vitalence and Chicago based clothing line Ethnik Roots. The ladies clothing line, Mama, symbolized by the word "Mama" and decorative hearts, was described by Andres as a contemporary line with roots firmly planted in street wear, earned thunderous applause as each female model strutted briskly across the stage and down the catwalk.

Next up was SF's independently owned jewelry line Made Jewelry. Models twirled shiny, glistening chains and flashed dangling earrings to photographers while maintaining a professional, model type composure.

RAH, Invisible Stripes, Greater Than, Selector, Debt Stock and Foreign Family were the remaining designers who also amazed the crowd with even more fresh, never-seen-before gear.

"Having the members model the clothes was our way of getting them to be more active in the group," Lopez said.

Featured designers set up tables along the perimeter of the hall and passed out fliers, business cards, posters and demo CD's. Vendors also sold their products at a cheaper price.

"It's actually kind of cool that the vendors are selling their stuff at cheaper prices, especially for us college students who budget our spending money," Lopez said.

The fashion show served as the primary fund raiser of which all proceeds benefit the production of PACE's 36th annual Pilipino Culture Night scheduled for May. PCN was originally established at SF State, but has been popularized and adopted by almost every Bay Area campus with a slight difference in the name, Lopez said.

"Here at State we still call it Pilipino Cultural Night," Lopez said. "At the University of SF it's called Bario Fiesta and other campuses have other names for the event."

This year's fashion show was actually introduced last semester, but never pulled through according to Vincent Lam, PACE's academics coordinator. Lam and other members plan to add the fashion show into
their list of spring productions.

"We put a lot of work into this event and it's amazing to see the results," Lam said. "It's truly an accomplishment."

PACE's next production, "Talentado," is scheduled for Mar. 15 and will have various local artists and musicians performing. "Talentado" will be the second production to help raise funds for PCN.

PACE Official Web site