Trent fashion show features clothes with style and edge

By Michelle Poirier

PETERBOROUGH – Politics and fashion merge in some of the clothes featured at Trent University’s annual student-run charity fashion show.

The show takes place Friday at The Venue in downtown Peterborough.

Reba Harrison, a Trent student who is the show’s director and an independent designer, says the clothing she is presenting on the runway makes some strong political statements.

“I had a friend helping me sew, and when they gave me the clothes back they said, ‘Here are your un-sit-able shorts (Harrison uses studs and metal in her clothes) and angry-lesbian sweater.’ And that pretty much describes my new line,” she said.

The line is called Shred, created for Harrison’s brand No Regrets Fashion.

The fashion show featuring independent designers and local shops has been running at Trent since 2010. Organizers are hoping to raise $3,000 for the YWCA Peterborough Haliburton’s Crossroads Shelter, which offers women and children in crisis a safe place to turn.

Representatives of Peterborough’s Youth Emergency Shelter will also be at the event, to collect gently used clothing donations.

There are 225 tickets, and Harrison said the show is expected to be sold out.

The second-year Gender and Women’s Studies major has been busy planning the show and designing her line, all the while keeping up with her schoolwork. She had help from the show’s executive team, she said, but there has not been a day without work prior to the show.

“I don’t have any spare time. Honestly, I never stop working,” she said.

There will be plenty of variety at the show, with clothes from No Regrets Fashion, Alanna Klatt, Amber Conlon, Cottage Toys, Tragically Hipp, Sympathy for the Rebel and Funky Buddha.

Another independent designer, Amber Conlon, is making her design debut at this year’s show. “I really wanted this collection to be strong yet elegant. I want anyone who wears something of mine to feel confident and sexy,” she said.

Designer Alanna Klatt is also a first-timer at the Trent Fashion Show. The collection she is showing, called Genesis, is “reminiscent of creation itself in its truest framework, featuring enduring symmetrical styles, organic seaming, and luxurious 100-per-cent knit fabrications,” Klatt said.

Doors to the show open at 4:30 p.m. and the event begins at 5 p.m. A limited number of tickets at $15 each will be available at the door.