Gainesville Fashion Week is looking for models who can strut, but organizers think local talent might be shivering instead.
Chin Chin Hao, co-producer and a UF telecommunication senior, said the recent cold front has posed an obstacle for promoting Gainesville Fashion Week’s seventh season.
Promotion involves approaching potential models, designers and attendees when they go out in Midtown or downtown, but organizers believe the cold weather is keeping students from venturing out to bars and clubs.
“A bunch of us went out (on Wednesday), and Wednesday is typically a big night in Midtown, but there was no one out,” said Rachel Godfrey, a GFW social media intern and 21-year-old UF journalism senior. “It makes it difficult for us.”
Other, unrelated changes in this year's GFW include organizers' incorporation of a designer casting call into its model casting call on Saturday.
Scouts from Premiere Model Management, a professional modeling agency, will also attend the call to provide additional incentive for models, Hao said.
To spread the word to those unwilling to brave the cold, the team handed out fliers at the gym and is sending them to UF residence hall mailboxes.
GFW has also been increasing its social media presence to get the message out.
“We’re constantly producing content, so even if we can’t reach people in person, we can do it through social media,” Godfrey said.
Despite the cold, GFW is aggressively promoting the events, said Alyssa Fisher, director of marketing and promotions.
“The new producers this year are very organized,” Fisher said. “They want to make sure that everyone is on top of everything.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 1/31/2014 under the headline "Fashion week hotties staying in due to cold"
This story has been edited to reflect corrections. Gainesville Fashion Week's designer casting call and involvement with a modeling agency were not related to the cold weather.]
