By Anh Nguyen
Members of Lincoln High’s Karen Club hosted a “Cultural Fashion Show” on Dec. 19, 2014 in the Ted Sorensen Theater to highlight the styles and fashions of a variety of countries. The show also featured cultural dances and music, and Lincoln High’s Ground Zero also performed in the show. The show also had the children from elementary schools. Karen Club sponsor Lisa Tolliver said this was actually the second cultural fashion show that the Karen Club has put on.
“The first one that we had was last year during the Karen New Year’s celebration. This year we did it twice. We did it once at the Show of Diversity and then again at the Karen New Year Celebration,” Tolliver said. This program included mostly students from Lincoln high school, but members of the India Association of Nebraska Lincoln were also involved.
“The Karen society of Nebraska holds a New Year event each year,aand they really love to celebrate all cultures, including their culture. Because fashion is such an important part of their heritage, they really wanted to bring in fashion from other cultures, too. The executive director asked us to put together students from different cultures to perform last year at the Karen New Year celebration, and once we did that and everyone loved it, and it was fun so we decided to do it again this year to show diversity,” Tolliver said.
“We’re talking about creating a fashion show troupe so that if any clubs or organizations want them to come to show their cultural clothing, we could do that.” The show wasn’t fundraiser for the Karen’s club, but Karen Club members sold Karen food and that money went to the Karen Zomi Kareni Club. The money from the Show of Diversity went to some of the other clubs like Middle Eastern Club, Karen Club, and Cross Cultural Ambassadors Club.
There are many countries represented, such as Iraq, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Mexico, Cuba, India, and two countries in Africa. “I was excited. I’m really glad that they have the opportunity to do this. I think they all thought it was fun and it gives them the opportunity to share their cultural heritages and traditions with other people who don’t get to see it very often,” Tolliver said. Many students enjoyed the show “My favorite part was the cultural dancing and the fashion show,” junior Eh Tee said.
Tee is a student from Thailand, and she was also a model in the fashion show.“I wore my traditional long dress clothes.” “I felt good about it, because it’s where you show your cultures’ clothes and it’s where you express and you show them who you really are,” Tee added. They sold the food like noodles, eggrolls, and other food that doesn’t have a name in English. A lot of students and parents came, making this year bigger than last year. They was raised around $400 from the food they sold. Hopefully, we will have more cultural fashion shows like this in the future.