A fashion show took place in the Kanter Student Center Oct. 9 to promote both a future secondhand career clothing closet on campus and the career fairs hosted by career services.

The fashion show displayed examples of business appropriate attire for students to wear when they join the work force or go for a job interview. The clothing came from many clothing retailers in the Wayne area. These included IKT Boutique, Wakefield’s Nearly New, Micah’s Closet, Swans Apparel, and Thrift Warehouse.

Five models walked across the Catwalk to show off their attire.

“Our models are live mannequins in the window of the Career Services office to bring attention to the great services by the wonderful staff at career services,” said Blake Thompson, a coordinator and emcee for the event.

Thompson said he teamed up with two classes of Business Communications service-learning students to coordinate the event.

One of the events promoted by the fashion show was the career fair which will be held on Oct. 23 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Kanter Student Center. Thompson said there will also be a nonprofit fair on Nov. 20. Thompson encourages students to use what they learned at the fashion show and dress in business appropriate attire when they attend these events.

“When you go to the career fair or interview for that job, you will want to be dressed to impress,” Thompson said.

Some examples of professional business attire are a suit jacket, slack, a button-down shirt and tie, skirts and trousers, Thompson said. He recommends wearing neutral colors to job interviews and having sleeves end at the wrists and not the hands.

The fashion show also promoted a new service-learning project on campus. The project plans to open a secondhand career clothing closet right on campus. The service-learning project is under the direction of Dr. Lindsay McLaughlin. She and her students want to collect donations of gently used career attire.

Students will be able to shop here free of charge, Thompson said.

Along with providing a place to get career attire, the secondhand career clothing closet will also be good for the environment. “Fast Fashion,” a contemporary term used to describe the rapid production of inexpensive clothing, leads to environmental issues and can be avoided by secondhand shopping. Thompson said secondhand shopping is good for the environment because it recycles clothes that would otherwise end up in landfills and it can lower the demand for new clothing to be produced.

To kick off the donation process people are asked to donate clothing at the Wayne State College men’s and women’s basketball games held Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., McLaughlin said.