The School of Fashion Design and Merchandising will host its 26th Annual Portfolio Fashion Show, Enigma, at 8 p.m. tonight in the Rockwell Hall auditorium.

The show will feature designs by senior fashion design students and a selection of junior students’ designs. The designs consist of women’s wear, menswear and children’s wear.

The fashion students’ designs have been critiqued throughout the year by Suede, a Season 5 “Project Runway” contestant and Kent State alumnus. Kent State alumnus Tad Boetcher, from the fashion line “Tad b.,” also critiqued students’ work.

“It’s more than just a show, it is a relationship with the community – within the university,” Professor Zainub Shammi Chowdhury said.

Chowdhury, along with her 2009 fashion portfolio class, is in charge of implementing the plans for the senior portfolio fashion show.

“It is a relationship with the outside community to bring this together. So it’s not a one-man project; it is a huge project in the sense,” she said.

She explained how the planning requires a lot of work from herself and her class. Not only does the show include the presentation of fashion design students, it also incorporates choreography and music.

“You want to entertain, but you don’t want it to be entertainment,” Chowdhury said. “You want it to be taken serious, and you want to showcase our students and their abilities. It’s a whole world of putting their heads together and thinking collectively.

“If you see the pieces, there is a bit of Enigma in the collections,” she said.

– Sarah Blei