Johnson County Community College’s student fashion show will be online this year

The pandemic has forced the fashion design students at Johnson County Community College to master hands-on skills virtually. Even the school’s annual fashion show is changing with the times.Resilience. That’s the name of this year’s student fashion show, which for the first time will be held virtually. “This group of students is the definition of resilience in our opinion, they were forced into online learning last spring. Many of them had to learn skills, you know independently via Zoom,” said Joy Rhodes, JCCC’s fashion and merchandising and design chair.Thirteen students will showcase their collections. While there won’t be a live audience or immediate applause for their work. The event is already attracting a virtual audience with ticket sales from all over the world. Showcasing their work is very personal to the students.”It’s very important to them, to be able to do build this content for their portfolios, and you know, to showcase their work for whether they’re going into the industry or going on to further education somewhere else. It’s very important,” Rhodes said.The whole fashion industry has had to change because of COVID-19 and these young designers are ready.”Being able to present and articulate your ideas via Zoom in an online setting. That’s an actual skill set now, and our students. This group of students have had to learn that really quickly,” Rhodes said.Because of the pandemic, last year was the first time in 50 years the students had no public fashion show. This year, the show will go on.”They’ve all rose to the challenge, therefore they called it resilience,” Rhodes said.The fashion show will be broadcast online April 23 and then be available for viewing for two weeks.Tickets can be purchased on the JCCC website, just search fashion show. All proceeds go to student scholarships in fashion merchandising and design.