Harvard's Fashion Debut

A female fashion model in a leather outfit struts down a makeshift runway in the auditorium at Roscoe Pound Hall. She sports a Russian-style cap terned with sparkles that spell out the afternoon's motif: "trendy."

Welcome to the first-ever Harvard Law School Fashion show, brought to you by Saks Fifth Avenue and the Law School's Student Committee for Sports and Entertainment.

Veritas and the well-dressed came together Saturday afternoon as a spiffy, standing room only crowd from many Boston-area colleges converged upon a model university to watch students model.

Putting on The Saks

Eleven professionals and six young girls from the Boston Ballet Company performed alongside eight amateur student models. About 700 older spectators paid $10 apiece to watch the 45-minute extravaganza, which netted $600 to bring guest speakers to the Law School.

"I thought it was one of the most exceptional events I've been to in my 40 years working for Saks Fifth Avenue," said Jerry Soodek, Northeast merchandising coordinator for the clothing store that co-sponsored the event.

"I was especially impressed with the audience's enthusiastic reactions," he said, drawing a contrast to the blase response usually accorded by Manhattan's more "jaded" fashiongoers.

And Sebastian Hoppe, the second-year JD/MBA candidate who triumphantly transformed his year old brainchild into reality, made sure everyone who attended went away happy. Each member of the crowd received a bottle of French perfume by Molinard and the current issue of M magazine as they entered the auditorium.

Fantasy Affair

The piece de resistance, a trip for two to Jamaica, was raffled off at the end of the show.

The upscale gifts closely matched the tenor of the crowd, which sometimes appeared more sartorially snazzy than the people onstage.

Doris Yaffe of Saks, who helped organize the show, dismissed suggestions that it was elitist or directed toward an affluent crowd.

"You might call it elitisim; I call it fantasy," Yaffe said. "Fashion is fantasy."

Yaffe said that "only four things in the show are from designers" and that students could afford "most of the clothes shown." Even the segment of the show featuring "fun furs" showcased outfits that the average Harvard student could manage, she said.

For at least one of the amateur models, participating in the fashion show was "the most fun I have had since high school."

Expanding Career Options

"It may seem like a narcissistic kind of activity, but I can see how models like to do this," said John Axelrod '88, an Adams House resident who Hoppe asked to model for the show. "It's like performing, only you get to be center-stage the whole time."

Ron Hoffman, the general manager of Saks' Boston store, was impressed by the students in the show. "The non-professional models looked sensational. I'd hire any of them right away," he said.

But the students had a lot of help from Saks. "Most people don't know what to wear to make them look good; the students wanted to pick their own clothing, but we told them what to wear," said Steve Cavalieri of Saks, who worked backstage at the show.

In fact, students didn't know what they would be doing on the runway until shortly before the opening curtain, said Ritchie C. Banker '86, one of the models and a resident of Eliot House.

Fortunately, "the people from Saks were really sympathetic and cute," Banker said, noting that she made a few new friends in the boisterous atmosphere backstage.

Of the Harvard students in the show, only Candace Bond '87, who transferred from Wellesley this year, had performed in a fashion show before.

But Bond was not selected because of her experience. Like the rest of the models, she had met Hoppe in a social setting and he mentioned his idea of a fashion show to her.

"I was introduced to Sebastian a month ago at The Juke Box club in Boston," Bond said. "I thought [the show] would be a great idea because it linked the campus as a whole."

Functional Wear

The student models showed off a line of Saks business wear and accessories that the sponsors said are important for the job interview season already underway. Hoppe said he chose the clothing displayed in the show with interviews in mind.

Fashion commentators in the press section said there was a noticable difference between the professionals and the students. According to one, the students were "much stiffer" and had "very little rapport with the audience."

While friends in the audience ooh-ed and aah-ed at their cohorts in the spotlight, they reserved their loudest applause for the adept posing of the professionals.

"The problem is they do not know how to present a line, to take on the character of the clothing they wear," said Haig Bagerdjian, a third year Harvard Law student.

Others were less discriminating. "For students it was a very good fashion show," said Karin Ohana, a Parisian student who currently works for the Karl Lagerfeld Co.

Organizers said both Harvard and Saks will benefit from the exposure afforded by the show. Reporters from The New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Cambidge TAB, M magazine, a student newspaper from Paris, and Andy Warhol's personal photographer from Interview magazine, all paid homage to this Harvard fashion first.

Yaffe said she was very surprised that such a show could generate interest at Harvard. "Harvard's image is very stuffy," she said, though she thought the event might do something to change that view.

"I think it was a very valuable event because it helped expose our store to a very viable market, from all across the country," Hoffman commented.

"I am the only person who ever took fashion, which is frivolous and elitist, and gave it credibility," Yaffe said, adding that she never takes part in a show that doesn't benefit a charity.

Even Hoppe, who carried copies of his resume for interested members of the press, came away a winner. Soodek, the Saks merchandiser, said he told him "he's quite welcome to a position in our executive training program if he wants it."

Hoppe called the event "a major success" but said he doesn't expect to participate in any future fashion shows.

"I would like to try something different, maybe get Jack Nicholson or Carol Burnett to speak here," he said.