First-Year Fashion Show Raises Eyebrows, Money

Participants in "Harvard's Hottest"-- a fashion show whose premise raised eyebrows across campus--bumped and grinded to raise money for community service Friday night in front of a packed Lowell Lecture Hall.

The show, which featured 30 first-year models, benefited Boston Area Students Involved in the Community (BASIC), a city-wide community service group founded this year by first-years.

The show's focus was more on the models than the "fashions"--an amalgamation of styles from retail stores such as The Gap, Structure and J. Crew, all taken from the closets of models.

Beginning with casual styles and finishing with formal wear, the models walked with charisma to the beats of techno music across the lecture hall floor.

A team of choreographers led by Margarita G. "Gigi" Quiogue '02 carefully planned the gaits of the "hottest." The model's styles included everything from school-girl looks to royal garb to cowboy boots.

The night was finished off by a date auction of 10 of the show's male and female models. The highest bid came for a trio of men who were sold for $75.

The "bought" models will attend a BASIC-catered dinner with their buyers in Annenberg before taking a group trip to the movies.

A committee set up by BASIC chose the models. Some in the audience Friday night said they were unhappy with the superficial nature of the criteria used to select "Harvard's Hottest."

"Some of my friends were disappointed that they were not chosen, but in the end it didn't really matter, because they realized it was an arbitrary decision by the [BASIC committee]," said Ana I. Laguarda '02, a model.

Laguarda, who said she lived in the room below one of the show's producers, said that many of the models seemed to have been chosen because they were friends of BASIC members.

"We picked charismatic, fun people. The criteria was 'people you'd like to see in a fashion show,'" said Stephen N. Smith '02, one of BASIC's founders.

Begun this year by Smith and Randy J. Gomes'02, BASIC is designed to integrate communityservice groups from different Boston-area collegesin order to attempt large-scale service projects.

Already the Harvard group, comprised mainly offirst-years, has received responses from areaschools such as Emmanuel College, Lesley College,Tufts University, Boston University, and BentleyCollege. Representatives from a few of thesecolleges attended the show Friday night.

As a fundraiser, BASIC members said the showwas a success. Smith reports that the $4 ticketssold out. Tickets, along with the help of fundsfrom the date auction at the end of the night,brought in over $1,200 for BASIC

Begun this year by Smith and Randy J. Gomes'02, BASIC is designed to integrate communityservice groups from different Boston-area collegesin order to attempt large-scale service projects.

Already the Harvard group, comprised mainly offirst-years, has received responses from areaschools such as Emmanuel College, Lesley College,Tufts University, Boston University, and BentleyCollege. Representatives from a few of thesecolleges attended the show Friday night.

As a fundraiser, BASIC members said the showwas a success. Smith reports that the $4 ticketssold out. Tickets, along with the help of fundsfrom the date auction at the end of the night,brought in over $1,200 for BASIC