Pirates, princesses and spotted dogs kept the audience entranced at the 14th annual Rock the Runway fashion show.  

For this year, students designed three cohesive outfits that coordinated with the show’s theme of Disney: Good vs. Evil on Saturday.

Assistant director of Kent State’s Student Center Programming and the organizer of the fashion show Rebecca Kapler said the fashion show features looks inspired by a wide array of different Disney movies.

“There’s a variety of movies that people are focusing on,” she said. “We’ve got anything from ‘101 Dalmations’ to ‘TRON’. It’s a wide variety; people have taken the theme and just kind of went with it, which is great. We love to see what people come up with.”

The judges for this year’s Rock the Runway were assistant professor of dance Gregory King, Kent State museum curator Sara Hume, associate lecturer Trista Grieder and assistant costume shop supervisor Marti Coles.

The winner of the show is awarded their choice of a trip to Disney World or $2,500 toward their fall tuition. The audience choice winner is awarded a $500 gift certificate to Mood Fabrics in New York City.

This year’s Rock the Runway winner was senior fashion design major Emily Rinehardt with her “Pirates of the Caribbean” collection titled “Sailor’s Warning.”

For the time being, Rinehardt does not know which prize she will choose.

“I don’t know yet,” Rinehardt said. “I haven’t even processed (winning) yet, so I don’t know what I’ll choose.”

Rinehardt said she is shocked she won this year because of the talent she had to compete with.

“Everyone’s collections were so good,” Rinehardt said. “I loved Phoebe Takeda’s ‘Snow White’ collection, it was gorgeous. The apple … I think the apple dress was my favorite look in the entire show.”

This year’s Rock the Runway audience choice winner, senior fashion design major Morgan Manuel, based her collection off the movie “TRON” and called it “Encom’s Elite.”

Manuel said while she didn’t win the overall show, winning the audience choice feels even better.

“It feels fantastic winning audience choice because even though you may not have pleased the four judges, you impressed the 800 plus people in the audience,” Manuel said. “At the end of the day, the way to be good at designing and the way to become successful is to impress the majority, not a small group of people.”

Abigail Miller is the fashion reporter. Contact her at [email protected].