Guests attending the 38th annual Silver Needle Runway show at McCann Center in Poughkeepsie will be swept up in a state-of-the-art showcase for the innovative creations of Marist Fashion’s senior design students. “If you’ve been to the Silver Needle before, you’re in for a lot of surprises,” promises student communications director Sarah Jacobs. “We’re setting up the seating and the stage in a whole new way, playing with holograms and monitors to develop something that really pushes the envelope this time out, and we’re excited.”
That bubbling excitement pulls together well over 100 Marist students—20 designers, 80 volunteers, and 40 students in the Fashion Show Production class—into a solid team tasked with organizing every detail of a show that typically draws over 2,000: industry professionals, local leaders in business and politics, press and the community’s fashion-curious. Jacobs says she’s busy emailing and handling tickets. “People come to see this from all over, which is so cool,” she says. “I’m so excited. Last year was really cool, and this year, with a lot of help, it should be just amazing.”
All that collaboration and experiential learning is a perfect fit with this year’s theme, "Interlinked," meant to speak to the ways in which all humans are part of a whole. “It is easy to feel small—to feel like nothing other than a single drop in a limitless ocean,” write the organizers. “But we invite you to remember: What is an ocean if not a multitude of singular drops?”
That theme is expressed in the designs themselves, which are often created using upcycled or otherwise sustainable fabrics, drawing a link between past and future for the fabrics themselves. To Jacobs, it also speaks of the hundreds who come together to create the experience. “From the fashion program faculty to a production crew from the city to the Town of Poughkeepsie police, it’s just a wonderful thing to be involved in,” she says.
The graduating fashion designers will each be presenting three to five looks, modeled by a mix of students and professionals. Last year’s show, which broke records for attendance and sales and added $31,000 to the Fashion Scholarship Fund and the Silver Needle Enrichment Fund, drew industry experts from Saks, DKNY, and Ralph Lauren.
This year’s Silver Needle Runway will step off at 7 pm on Friday, May 3, with an opening reception at 6 pm. Tickets range from $10 for bleacher seats to $100 for the front row.
