Color coordination is a method sometimes applied to organizing a wardrobe, and over the weekend this was scaled up by coordinating an entire fashion show by color.

Ohio State’s Fashion Production Association held its 20th annual fashion show “Spectrum: A Runway of Color” Saturday in the Archie M. Griffin Grand Ballroom. 

“It was really difficult and challenging to come up with a theme that would test our designers and really be innovative while also really pushing our designers to grow,” said Meghan Plumly, co-president of FPA and a fourth-year in fashion and retail studies and international business.

What once started as a class, the FPA was founded 20 years ago by students and fashion and retail studies professor Nancy Rudd as a way for students to design more outside of the major courses. The group puts on the show at the end of spring semester as a way to feature FPA members’ work and designs created throughout the year. 

For this show, there were more than 20 designers that contributed to the show and 26 production team members that helped design the set, marketing materials, music, scripts and overall fashion show logistics. From linen peplum tops to velour mermaid-style evening gowns, the show offered a wide variety of styles categorized into five acts that represented specific hues on the color spectrum. 

“(The designers) have to stay within their color limits and that is something that is really intriguing and different that we have been making them do, and it made for a really cool show,” said Anna Busi, FPA’s director of design and a second-year in marketing.

The limited color palette the executive committee chose included white, yellow, green, red, orange, pink, purple, blue, cyan and black. These 10 hues were divided into five acts organized by warm and cool colors: act one, white; act two, yellow and green; act three, red, orange and pink; act four, purple, blue and cyan; and act five, black.

Samuel Hardwicke-Brown, the show’s MC and a third-year in fashion and retail studies, emphasized the importance of color as it relates to the shoes.

“Color has the ability to influence our feelings and emotions in a way that few other mediums can,” Hardwicke-Brown said.

The show opened with designs representing only the color white, and each model wore a nude shoe and minimal, simplistic accessories in order to keep from distracting the audience from the design and the associated emotion with each act’s chosen hue.

“Our designers have decided to try to use color and capture each hue with their unique interpretation,” Hardwicke-Brown said.  

The peplum silhouette was featured at least once in each of the five acts and was the first design of the evening to walk the runway. Other trends of the night included linen trousers, laser cutouts, maxi-length dresses, high-low hemlines and lace details.

“(The event showed) a glimpse of what may be the designs of tomorrow,” Hardwicke-Brown said.