Contradictions - Part 2, Execution

As soon as we returned to school in the fall of our junior year, Mich and I were working on our show nonstop. We were living together that year, which made things convenient. I had seen a fashion show in the dining hall at Pforzheimer (one of the "houses" or dorms on campus) that had impressed me, so we got permission from the super and the house committee to do our show there. Fortunately for us, the catwalk from the same show had been preserved in the basement, which cut at least one thing off of our list of expenses. We also needed permission from the University to hold the event, which Mich took care of, along with ticketing through the Box Office.

Somewhere along the line, we decided to shift the focus from "Asianness" to being multicultural, since making an "Asian" show would only reinforce the stereotype of Asian self-segregation. One of the segments would display this through the exhibition of traditional costumes from all over the world. My roommate Helen was charged with rounding these up, loaned to us by other students on campus. We started the segment with the song "American Woman" and three girls walking out in jean cutoffs and tops I made from American flag fabric.

Then the Korean drum troupe, which I was a part of, started up with a traditional song and the models came out in costumes from a variety of countries.

Our other roommate, Candice, was charged with recruiting campus acts to perform in between segments and keep the audience from getting bored. For the two shows we got break dancers, salsa dancers, and the Caribbean Club dance troupe.

Our other segments included one showcasing most of the designers whose clothes we borrowed, then a segment of student designs,' then a final segment which was everyone's favorite -- swimwear (by Keiko). Here's a photo of a few of my designs (I'm a little embarrassed to show it ;-) )
Our next big project was recruiting models for our show. We handed out flyers between classes advertising our auditions, spammed house e-mail lists, and went around to the different dining halls during meals and harrassed good-looking students, asking them to audition. Harvard's weekend magazine, "Fifteen Minutes" does a survey of the 15 hottest freshmen each year, and while many people disagree with some of the selections, I e-mailed the 15 from each year previous to encourage them to try out. We had a good turnout and made our selections. Some people wrote angry e-mails when they weren't chosen (typical Harvard egos) but we were going for a certain look and also had to make sure our models' measurements fit the sample sizes we got. I learned a lot about bodies from doing the show -- like how some people might look thin but actually be larger than they look, or some people might be really thin but have a big booty or chest. We found a rehearsal space in Currier Fishbowl (a space in another house) and did rehearsals. We taught the models how to walk and did run-throughs without the clothes.

Our room was connected to my ex-boyfriend-turned-friend's room through the bathroom and we had become buddies with them through late-night random hanging out. My ex-boyfriend was one of the models and two of the other roommates were recruited to be the MCs because they were very charismatic and hilarious. One ended up having to drop out because he had a squash game but we got another girl who I had wanted to model in the show to replace him.

We charged the models with getting their friends to come to the show, requiring each to sell 10 tickets. We advertised the show as we did the model auditions, although I got into a bit of a controversy over our marketing slogan. Since the show was benefitting breast cancer research, I came up with the slogan, "Like breasts? So do we!" It might have been a little less than classy but I thought it was funny while attention-grabbing (especially for the boys). One girl in one of the houses I sent our advertising e-mail to engaged me in a fight over the whole house list, accusing me of being insensitive, and how she knew someone who had struggled through breast cancer. I was taken aback and responded that I hadn't meant to offend and that unfortunately, fewer people would pay attention to an e-mail inviting someone to an event benefiting breast cancer research than an e-mail like mine. Fortunately, it seemed that the majority of people on the list (or at least the ones who responded) agreed with me, and some even went so far as to stat they would send me checks for the research fund (and did), in defiance towards this girl.

As we approached the date of the show, there were more and more things we realized we had to do. Michelle picked up the clothing around Thanksgiving weekend, a couple of weeks before the show. It was a struggle to stay on top of everything while also trying not to fail our classes. I lost almost 10 lbs. because I was nervous and just plain didn't have time to eat sometimes. We were both excited and stressed about how our baby would turn out.