BY CHRISTIAN COELHO

Last night (Saturday, January 25) Washington Union alumni Frank Rodriguez held a fashion show in the Auditorium where he showcased his outfits made entirely out of paper and raised funds for the Art Club.

“[I chose paper] because it’s cheaper and I don’t know how to sew.  A hot glue gun works really well with paper and I know how to fold,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez and his brother Tony spent half a year preparing for the show including designing the dresses, finding a venue, finding models, and finding people to make the flyers.

“It’s always good when you have an alumnus come back and showcase their talent such as the Rodriguez twins.  For them to involve the Art Club in this thing, and students and Art Club members, it’s a good deal,” activities director Kevin Harris said.

The event had an attendance of about 100 people.

“It was magnificent, it was very creative. The fact that they got paper and it’s on the dresses and hats and just the whole style [of the show],” Harris said.

Many students also enjoyed the fashion show.

“It was really good and creative, because the clothes were unusual which is better in the fashion industry,” said sophomore Jose Ledesma.

The show was inspired by Alice in Wonderland and all the outfits represented something from the movie.  The fashion show was also used as a fundraiser for the Art Club and featured four models that are current students as well as art instructors Jeanie Donato and Tera Garcia.

“I wanted Ms. Donato and Ms. Garcia to help me because I was also in the art club and I kinda wanted to support them too, because it seems like a lot of people these days aren’t very interested in the arts. I’m just kicking it back up and instead of fabric I just use paper so it will be fashion and a piece of pop art,” Rodriquez said.

Rodriquez hopes that the work put into the show will bring him future success.

“I hope this show we had just a few minutes ago will open doors for me maybe fashion wise or career wise, if not then I’m fine with it I can keep on dreaming, but if it does I’m happy.  As long as I do what I love for a career, there’s not much for money,” said Rodriquez.

The dresses will be modeled again on Thursday, March 4th between 6 and 8 p.m. during Art Hop in the Tower District at Broadway Studios.