Kent State fashion design students will host their second ever Kent Fashion Week at 157 Lounge in downtown Kent this weekend.

The event started Thursday and will end Saturday.

Matt Guska, manager of 157 Lounge, said it is a chance for all of the senior fashion design students to display their final collections that may have not been in The Fashion School’s Annual Fashion Show, “FS2.”

“Each year, [the] school’s fashion show is getting bigger and bigger,” Guska said. “Our show is more of a gallery presentation. Each designer has a designated time slot, so friends and family have the chance to come see their work up close without sitting through an entire show.”

Kent Fashion Week is run and organized solely by students, who met on a weekly basis since the beginning of the semester to plan the event.

“We all got to organize and pick our own music, models, make-up and hair,” said Nina Zahler, senior fashion designer. “We get to show all of our looks, and unlike last weekend’s fashion show, everything is totally up to us and what we want in our segment. I am really excited.”

There are 56 fashion designers presenting their collections at the show, with two presenting at a time during 20-minute segments.

“I have worked on my collection since my junior year,” said Danielle Pusateri, senior fashion design major. “We have done so many things over the past year to get our senior collections ready. We even went to New York City to pick out fabrics. We put this on so we can express ourselves and our collection strictly the way we want to.”

The night will kick-off with a live DJ and a presentation from the Women 4 Women Ohio organization. Guska said 50 percent of all profits during the first two hours of Thursday’s showing will go to the organization.

W4WO raises money through events to support scholarships for high school and university-bound girls in Cambodia who would otherwise be unable to attend school.

“We have worked with the local organization before,” Guska said. “We wanted to keep the event positive and give back.”

The bar will be set up with multiple podiums standing high around the bar so people can see the looks from all different angles, Guska said.

157 Lounge is located at 157 S. Water St in downtown Kent. The show will begin at 6 p.m. each night and go until 10 p.m. Admission is free, and the event is open to all ages.

“Although it is every aspiring fashion designer’s dream to show their collections during a fashion week, it can take years to get there,” Zahler said. “I guess we are taking matters in our own hands, and we are getting a taste of what is to hopefully come.”

Contact Kate Kelly at [email protected].