• Two women in corresponding jeans and floral patterned corsets pose side by side. The woman on the left’s hair is up in a ponytail and she holds her right arm up above her head while angling her body against the other woman. The woman on the right’s hair is braided in a half-up half-down style and she faces forward.
    NOIR Runway Fashion models display the works of local fashion designers at Odyssey: The Hero’s Journey at the Power Center Saturday Night. Keith Melong/Daily. Buy this photo.
  • The upper half of a woman dressed in a matching pink set is shown as she poses with her arms up alongside her face. She is offset by a black background.
    NOIR Runway Fashion models display the works of local fashion designers at Odyssey: The Hero’s Journey at the Power Center Saturday Night. Keith Melong/Daily. Buy this photo.
  • A man and a woman pose together. The man is dressed in an all black suit with a white undershirt, a red blazer over and black studded shoes. He faces away from the model with an arm over her shoulder as she moves away from him. She is dressed in a long black gown and black high heels.
    NOIR Runway Fashion models display the works of local fashion designers at Odyssey: The Hero’s Journey at the Power Center Saturday Night. Keith Melong/Daily. Buy this photo.
  • The upper half of a woman dressed in a jean skirt and white tank top with pearl and silver necklaces is shown. She holds a pair of sunglasses in her hand and points her chin up and away.
    NOIR Runway Fashion models display the works of local fashion designers at Odyssey: The Hero’s Journey at the Power Center Saturday Night. Keith Melong/Daily. Buy this photo.
  • A woman dresses in a long black velvet dress with gold detailing and a black undershirt complete with a forest green head covering and gold jewelry. She stands with her arms spread out and face tilted up and to the side.
    NOIR Runway Fashion models display the works of local fashion designers at Odyssey: The Hero’s Journey at the Power Center Saturday Night. Keith Melong/Daily. Buy this photo.
  • a woman poses in all white attire complete with a white head covering complete with gold jewelry. She poses perpendicular to the crowd with her arm up and face forward.
    NOIR Runway Fashion models display the works of local fashion designers at Odyssey: The Hero’s Journey at the Power Center Saturday Night. Keith Melong/Daily. Buy this photo.
  • The upper half of a man dressed in different toned jean clothing is shown as he faces sideways while clutching at his necklaces. He holds a teddy bear made from multiple different materials and a baseball cap obscures his face.
    NOIR Runway Fashion models display the works of local fashion designers at Odyssey: The Hero’s Journey at the Power Center Saturday Night. Keith Melong/Daily. Buy this photo.

NOIR, a philanthropy-based fashion group at the University of Michigan, presented their annual runway event at the Power Center Saturday night. The event included seven designers and 40 models donning clothing by both student and professional designers based out of the Ann Arbor area. Inspired by Homer’s epic “The Odyssey”, the runway included scenes related to Homer’s story.

NOIR’s annual runway event is the group’s biggest event of the year. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Jalen Gu, NOIR president and Business senior, said Saturday’s runway aided in raising $1,000 in support of the Ann Arbor Art Center this year in combination with other NOIR events. 

“This year, we wanted to align (the runway event) a bit more with our mission, which is arts and fashion,” Gu said. “So, it just made a lot more sense for us to support our art center.” 

A woman in an asymmetrical green and gold dress and black peep-toe heels poses with her arms above her head in a triangular shape. She is offset by a black background.
NOIR Runway Fashion models display the works of local fashion designers at Odyssey: The Hero’s Journey at the Power Center Saturday Night. Keith Melong/Daily. Buy this photo.

While the organization is based at the University, Gu said NOIR also hosts models and designers outside of the school.

“We find designers (who) can be students or local designers who (design) full time (from) around the country,” Gu said. “We also have models, which I believe this year are all students (from the University) of Michigan, but in previous years, they’ve been students from (Michigan State University) … or all over the state.”

Gu also spoke about the runway’s theme of a “hero’s journey” inspired by “The Odyssey.” Gu said NOIR studied specific parts of Homer’s epic to discover the types of music and clothing that would best fit each scene.

“We’re using some of the quotes from (“The Odyssey”) to guide the (creation and execution of the runway event),” Gu said. 

LSA sophomore Sarah-Marie Jabre was one of the models for Saturday’s runway. In an interview before the event Jabre told The Daily she had always been interested in modeling and clothing design and was excited to get involved in the industry on campus. 

“I saw (NOIR) on my friend’s Instagram story, and I’ve always been interested in fashion,” Jabre said. “It felt like it was a creative outlet that (people) can involve themselves in.” 

a short-haired brunette woman with her eyes closed points her face over her shoulder as her back faces the crowd. She poses in nude heels and an all black fit with her coat off her shoulders and is offset by a black background.
A woman in a draping red dress and black peep-toe shoes poses by lifting the material of the dress to form a U-shape. She is offset by a black background.

NOIR Runway Fashion models display the works of local fashion designers at Odyssey: The Hero’s Journey at the Power Center Saturday Night. Keith Melong/Daily. Buy this photo.

The runway event included nine different scenes from “The Odyssey,” starting with a scene titled “Ordinary World,” and ending the story with a scene titled “Return With Elixir.” Each scene of “The Odyssey” was represented by different designers’ clothing with unique music selections to fit each scene. The show also included an intermission and a musical performance by local musician Tonie Arcon. 

Music, Theatre & Dance junior Margot Cunningham told The Daily that, while she is exposed to a lot of fashion at the music school, it is different from the kind seen at the show. 

“I think it’s really cool to see the different vibe, and I think the music really matched,” Cunningham said. “(The semi-formal dress code) makes it really fun to be able to take part in dressing up just like the people who are in the show. Dressing up and getting to go to a show with friends is really fun.”

A man and a woman pose together. The man crouches in front and to the left of the woman with his hands and arms forming a bow-like form. His hair is braided and he is wearing black jeans, black shoes and an unzipped brown and blue fleece. The woman stands also with her arms in a bow-like formation as she looks down at the man. She is wearing black leather pants, black heels and a multi-beige colored sweater with her hair in a ponytail.
NOIR Runway Fashion models display the works of local fashion designers at Odyssey: The Hero’s Journey at the Power Center Saturday Night. Keith Melong/Daily. Buy this photo.

During the runway’s final scene, the executive board members of NOIR also participated in walking on the runway. When all the executive board members were on the stage, Gu took the microphone and thanked the people who made the event happen.

“I want to thank you guys for trusting us with your creations and allowing us to show your work to the world,” Gu said. “Thank you (to the audience) for supporting us on this fine Saturday evening, celebrating creativity, diversity and beauty of fashion as an art.”

Daily Staff Reporter Ji Hoon Choi can be reached at jicho@umich.edu.