A Model Minority: ‘Identities’ Takes Runway

What do 80-year-old grandmothers in Chinatown, baggy-pants-wearing youth in the Bay Area and haute couture have in common? At least one Harvard student is trying to find a connection.

Originally conceived by Nathan P. Gunawan ’07, “Identities: A Fashion Show” attempts to explore the various facets of Asian-American culture through the medium of fashion. The fashion show, organized by the Asian American Association (AAA), will take place on Saturday, April 7 at 9 pm in the Lowell House dining hall.

DIVERSITY AND DISTINCTION

“What we wanted to do was highlight Asian-American culture in a different way than what had been done before,” says co-producer Sanby Lee ’08. “There have been a lot of panels and talks and stuff, but we wanted to do something more creative.”

The show will consist of three themed segments: “Chinatowns,” “The Golden Ghetto,” and “East Meets West.” In addition, the show will feature a spring/summer fashion preview, a showcase of student designs answering the prompt “What does ‘identity’ mean to you?,” and several performance pieces, all incorporating video and music.

“We want to show something beyond stereotypes, that there are lots of distinctive communities,” Lee says. “You can’t view them all together as just ‘Asian-American.’”

Fashion is an appropriate medium for exploring these distinctions, Lee adds, because “fashion is a way to express yourself. So by what people wear, we are trying to see who they are.”

AMAZIN’ AZNS

Lee is directing the “Golden Ghetto” segment of the show, which highlights the so-called “Azn” subculture of predominantly Asian-American suburban communities. The “Chinatowns” segment, directed by Gunawan, explores the lives of ordinary people living in American Chinatowns.

“Nathan and I went to the Garment District to look for clothes, and we’d ask ourselves questions like, ‘Is this something your 80-year-old grandma would wear?’” Lee says. “We’re trying to look at a community besides the usual portrayal of Chinatown with seedy restaurants and gangsters.”

“East Meets West,” directed by co-producer Margaret M. Wang ’09, explores the experience of Asians in predominantly white, Western settings.

“You see a lot of Asian-inspired clothes from Western designers,” Wang says. “There are lots of parallels between Eastern and Western cultures, and it’s interesting how people combine them.”

“By looking at common elements in clothing, we’re trying to find common elements in culture,” Lee says. “It’s like anthropology—what are they trying to say through how they dress?”

DESIGNING MEN AND WOMEN

Not only does “Identities” hope to showcase different Asian-American communities, it also attempts to foster a greater sense of community on campus through student involvement in the show. The organizers of “Identities” held auditions where they selected 30 students to model fashions and perform.

“It was great because we really reached out personally to people,” Lee says. “People who wouldn’t normally try out saw their friends doing it and decided that it might be fun. It was really a community thing.”

James A. Fish ’10, a model and a dancer in a hip-hop segment of the show, initially got involved in “Identities” at the urging of his friends Wang and Jun Li ’10.

“So far it’s been interesting, to say the least—a little different from what I expected,” says Fish. “Working on a limited budget is a little difficult for the designers, but for what it’s worth, they came up with some pretty great clothing.”

The clothes in the show are a mixture of thrift store finds, students’ own clothing, pieces lent from local shops such as Mudo—a co-sponsor of the show—and original student designs. Hyphen, a San Francisco-based magazine on modern Asian-American life and culture, is also co-sponsoring the show and providing some of the clothes.

‘PRETTY OUT THERE’

AAA hopes “Identities” will become an annual event with different themes every year. For now, the hope is that it will be a unique and fun experience for students.

“Some of the designs are pretty out-there, a little different from what you’re used to seeing,” Lee says. “I’ll just say that we went to the Garment District and bought some really ugly clothes, but they look great on the runway. There are some random, crazy ideas.”