Flashing lights and music filled E. Turner Stump Theatre Saturday as a crowd anxiously awaited the beginning of “Mobius: A Twisting of Evolution.” The show, presented by Kent State’s School of Fashion Design and Merchandising, marked senior fashion design students’ last time to feature their final collections.

Saturday’s show began with individual pieces that walked the runway first. Design students, from freshmen to seniors, entered these garments.

Each collection was then shown as a whole, consisting of three to five pieces. The crowd roared with applause and cheers following each collection.

When children’s wear strutted the runway, the crowd couldn’t help but laugh and cheer for the young children on stage.

Fashion icons from all over attended the show. Suede, a Kent State alumnus who appeared on “Project Runway” before creating his own line, SUEDEsays, attended “Mobius” and also sponsored an award.

After the 8 p.m. show, the crowd waited anxiously for J.R. Campbell, fashion school director, to announce awards.

One special announcement was the induction of Dana Buchman into the Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman School of Fashion Design and Merchandising’s Hall of Fame.

Each of the three critics, who worked with the senior fashion design students throughout the semester, chose a student who would be awarded a $500 scholarship and a book they believed would benefit the student in the future. Jeff Bergus chose senior Stacie Moss, Sarah Van Aken chose senior Deanna Turcotte and John Patrick chose senior Jasmine Kornel.

Kornel has a women’s sportswear collection inspired by nature.

“I was really focused on natural dyes and a lot of different sustainable ideas,” Kornel said.

Stacie Moss designed a women’s wear collection. Moss described it as whimsical knitwear with a lot of handcrafted details. Alongside the other fashion design students, she said, it took her about a year to put together a collection.

“I’ve never won anything in my life,” Moss said, “so it was crazy.”

Liz Miller, senior fashion design major, won two $1,000 awards and a dress form. She won the Kohl’s Dana Buchman Award and Best in Show.

“I was just holding my head up to make sure I didn’t start tearing up,” Miller said.

She created a women’s wear collection but said she believes the majority of her collection is gender-neutral.

At the end of Miller’s junior year she began to choose her look for her collection, she said. At the time, the tsunami had just struck Japan.

Miller said her inspiration came from thinking about what it was like to step back from the chaos and look at the way everyone reacted. Miller said humans just learned to adapt to the changes.

Due to this natural disaster, Miller said she got her inspiration from Japanese dress. She got her “over-sized” look from that.

“I really appreciate craft and close attention to detail,” Miller said, “but I also want my clothing to be wearable and comfortable.”

Miller said she worked with a very close-knit group of people and is very humble about the awards.

“I know that I worked really hard,” Miller said. “This whole experience has been such a whirlwind.”

Contact Danielle DeBord at [email protected].