Stick To Positivity
By: Victoria Vitale
In today’s society, most people find it hard to fit in or be accepted. They struggle with how they look, what their popularity status is, constantly wishing they were someone else. People feel the need to fit into a certain category to establish a sense of belonging.
But — nobody is perfect.
This is why Threads Fashion Show created a body positivity and inclusivity promotional campaign to spread awareness that all skin colors and body types are beautiful.
What is Threads Fashion Show?
Threads is one of the top most attended on-campus events at Central Michigan University. It is a student-run fashion show with designers studying Fashion Merchandising and Design (FAMD). The production team for the show is also 100% made up of the student body. This isn’t only for fashion students, though.
The production class has opportunities for finance, event management, public relations, graphics, venue, model management, hospitality, and much more. It is composed of a variety of areas, making it easy to get involved no matter what major or minor someone has! Every spring semester, FMD357 (Fashion Show Production & Promotion) is offered and is open to the students to sign up.
If you don’t take the production class, there are a ton of other ways to get involved as well. For example, there were 124 student models for this year’s show. This is a great way to make friends and have some fun at the same time.
Since it is 100% student-run, volunteers are always welcome to collaborate with the team members. Threads also chooses a student DJ for music, student photographers/videographers, and much more. If they don’t have a specific spot for you, it is just about certain that they will create one!
Cecilia Alfaro, one of this year’s producers, said “This is a great opportunity for every individual on campus because so many areas of experience are needed for a successful production.”
THREADS FASHION ID
Like mentioned, the 2019 show theme decided to be Fashion ID, for identity. The producers wanted emphasize on something they thought society is lacking, which is making everyone feel important and inclusive. This is truly a struggle in the world today. Stephanie Kirby, a psychology writer for BetterHelp, elaborated on body image and how to media impacts self-esteem.
“Whether we want to believe it or not the media plays a big role in our lives. It includes magazines, commercials, newspaper, and now social media as well. Even if you manage to avoid all of these things you are still likely to see a billboard or sign along the road as you drive. While media is focused on selling your products, services, and ideas, there is a hidden danger that lurks behind it all. Media is a big factor in helping us form our body image, and with the tactics that they use, it has a negative impact on society. Self-esteem is largely affected by body image and the media.”
With that being said, Threads took a big step forward this year to change that. The Public Relations/Graphics Committee came up with a promotional campaign called “Stick to Positivity”.
For the campaign, personalized sticky notes were created with the Threads logo, and people in the production class were asked to write positive messages and add creative doodles. Once this was completed, the committee took the sticky notes and began placing them all around campus. This included bathrooms, walls, mirrors, and any where that was visible and effective.
Jenna Boulter, Director for the Public Relations/Graphics Committee, had a few positive things to say about the campaign.
“To me, the goal of this project wasn’t even directly to promote Threads, but more so to promote the positivity and inclusivity aspect. It went with our theme, of course, but it was designed to spread confidence and to make people feel good.”
Not even an hour later after the sticky notes were posted, people were quick to share on their social media channels.
Shiyao Lou, a foreign exchange student and one of the first students to post about the campaign, was super happy that people would go out of their way to do something this extraordinary.
“You can tell that there was a lot of time and effort put into the whole thing! I feel like every one is so busy with their own life, sometimes we forget about the feelings of others and how they view themselves. Stuff like this is needed and very much appreciated.”
During the campaign, the production team decided to make a promotional video to showcase the process. While scrolling through Pinterest, students were able to get some inspiration as to what to write on the notes, as shown in the video.
Ian Mull, the Threads Fashion faculty advisor, had a lot of positive feedback toward the campaign as well.
“The students really took initiative this year to create something great, and yet so powerful. Body positivity and inclusivity within groups is lacking within society. Although we are only targeting one college student body, we are happy to make an impact no matter how big or small of an audience we reach.”
Although the sticky notes were the drive of the campaign, Threads continued to implement body positivity and inclusivity throughout other promotional materials such as the posters, banners, tickets and signs during the show. For the posters and banners, 7 different students from Central Michigan University were used. Being able to use the actual student body as the representation for the show made a bigger impact.
In addition to that, the General Admission tickets (pictured at the bottom right) were designed to represent different skin tone swatches.
Overall, Threads Stick to Positivity campaign was beyond successful. So many students and faculty members were impressed and it left such a positive impact which was the ultimate goal.
With this reaching such a large audience, it is expected that other organizations and individuals will act on this and keep the positivity going.
