THE 2023 LUNAR NEW YEAR FASHION SHOW AT CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY | PHOTOS COURTESY LUNAR GALA

Lunar Gala’s annual Lunar New Year Fashion Show, which started in 1997, is Pittsburgh’s longest-running fashion show and one of the largest. “We’re planning on holding a capacity of 1,250,” says one of Lunar Gala’s producers and previous models, Anita Cheng. 

From designers and models to producers and directors, the event scheduled this year on March 30 is completely run by Carnegie Mellon University’s students.

The inspiration for the show came from the university’s Taiwanese Student Association and the Lunar New Year tradition of wearing new clothes. This year’s show will be held in CMU’s Wiegand Gym and will showcase the student collaboration of technology, music, design and modeling. 

This year, the club landed on the theme “Liminal,” expressing the transitional experience and threshold of being a student in college. “Our creative team was just really passionate about the concept and the time of our lives,” Cheng says. 

Designers take the theme and curate their own interpretations, using their own resources.

“Everything is completely self-made, so they do source from second-hand resources like thrift shops…everything is reconstructed to be their piece,” Cheng says. Some of the fashion is practical, sometimes being sold before or after the event.

Students will present 16 design lines for the 2024 show, including a line from three returning alumni, on a designed stage with a backdrop. Displaying innovative and avant garde fashion, designers, tech teams and models collaborate for a diverse and eye-catching show.

The club introduced its new initiatives, focusing on student opportunities and participation from outside campuses and communities. Dancers from area Pittsburgh universities and local designers join the talent pool. Each student designer is paired with a mentor from Style412, a nonprofit supporting Pittsburgh’s conscious fashion.

 “I think we’ve been recovering from COVID a little bit…we’re really proud to bring back a partnership with Style412,” Cheng says.

They continue to work with the local non-fashion community, partnering with Pittsburgh businesses like Gidas Flowers in Oakland. The club receives a commission of their sales when people buy flowers for participants of the show.

As a student-run organization, the university supports Lunar Gala with funding while the rest of costs are covered through ticket sales. Sales help to support the continuation of the university’s fashion show. 

In addition to connecting with the community, Lunar Gala is expanding opportunities for students with experience for their future careers. “We used to get professionals to do [hair and makeup], but this year we’re trying to keep it in-house,” Cheng says.

She says the Lunar Gala has developed enough of a reputation that students are applying each year without much advertisement. This year, more than 20 student designers come prepared to represent the student experience through design.

“Last year, our theme was Morii. So we played on fleeting experiences…a lot more abstract concepts,” Cheng says. 

This Chinese Lunar New Year, according to the Chinese Zodiac, is the year of the blue dragon. Cheng says either in concept or physicality, there will be a preserving element of the organization’s origins.