Live Fast and Die Pretty and do fashion
By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer
Alternative? Edgy? Out there? Oh, yeah. This was not your average college fashion show.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
The emcee was Teighlor Armani, a flamboyant drag queen who wore an elegant Anne Klein winter white suit in the first half of last month's show, switching to a black, fringed Tina-Turner-like mini at intermission. Entertainment included a description of safe-sex practices, by show sponsors Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexuals and the Gay/Straight Alliance.
Journalism major Aisha Moss, 22, left, and art major Richard Brooks, 21, prepare their outfits backstage for Live Fast Die Pretty 2.
The clothes? Each designer claimed an individual aesthetic, from the funky deconstructed lace skirts, hot pants, satin bustles and bare-to-there bustiers of Jill Bowen to the ripped, torn and trampled men's wear of Michael Paul and the beautifully constructed prim and proper feminine '50s dresses of Heather Meulemans.
This was the second annual Live Fast and Die Pretty show for University of Hawai'i-Manoa fashion design students, put on by sophomore Michael Paul, who believes the students deserve an avenue other than the senior fashion show, which is produced as a final exam (and graded as such) and has, in his view, far too many design restrictions.
In 2003, the show was held in the basement of Hemenway Hall and a handful of students attended. The 2004 show, on April 29, filled up the Campus Center Ballroom.
