MODO Activities or How to Be Creative in Academia

Before suggesting ideas on how to learn to find the tools necessary to express yourself in public, it is important to describe what we offer to our members at UCL as a society.


MODO Fashion Show 2009 - Designer: Mary Williamson, Model: Vicky Bond


As mentioned in the last post, we want UCL students to DESIGN CLOTHES. You don't need experience with sewing or pattern cutting, you just need to be able to think creatively. The clothes for the MODO fashion show should be theatrical and expressive one-of-a-kind pieces. To do that, you just have to take the theme selected by MODO each year and start being inspired. For the 2009-2010 Show, we are going for The Green Fashion Show. The reason for this is to raise awareness in our designers about environmental issues and the relationship between humans and nature nowadays. Ideally, the designs created should portray an understanding of the issue and an original, personal interpretation of it. It all sounds incredibly difficult, but we are all amateur designers who like to experiment with ideas and materials. We will start recruiting deigners from October 2009, so if you are a UCL student and are interested, keep an eye on this space or on our facebook group, website, newsletter.



In order to present the designers' creations on the catwalk, we also recruit models among students at UCL. We welcome every shape and size as long as they have charisma and presence on the catwalk, have a confident, good walk and are not too shy or intimidated by the idea to wear hand-made potentially crazy designs, which might sometimes not fit perectly. We will have auditions in October as well, so come along if you are interested. An important thing to note is, however, that we cannot select everyone who comes to auditions. We will only choose a small number which in rotation will wear up to two or three outfits in the show. The reason for this is that we do not know how many designs our designers are willing and able to produce until the fashion show. So, in order not to disappoint, we cannot choose too many people.





The weekly Sewing classes are one of the most established activities in our society. This year we aim at making them even more interesting by introducing classes such as embroidery, mask making and shoe covering. We aim at making these weekly appointments as fun and creative as possible, so come along every Monday from October, 7-9pm, in the Bloomsbury Conference Room (2nd floor, Gordon Street) and for a mere £4 for members and £ 6 non members you can learn some fun and easy techniques to make your clothes look unique!


The photoshoots are a new introduction in our list of activities and are generally organised into small sessions with one or two of our models and a photographer. The pictures are usually used to create our posters and banners or for articles of various kinds. For this purpose (and for the Fashion show as well) we have developed a Hair and Make-up team, which is in charge to prepare the models for the photoshoots or smaller fashion shows we organise throughout the year. During the main Fashion show, the team is responsible to prepare the models for their various changes of outfits.



PR and events management is another area we are expanding on. Our PR team has always done a successful job in getting media attention on our productions. In terms of events management, we are trying to introduce new fashion nights and gathering of various sorts for our members and we welcome anyone who is willing to help in achieving this.


If you have unused clothes in your wardrobe, GIVE THEM TO US! MODO has a boot sale twice a term, which aims at recycling and re-using clothes between students. Our MODO collection bin is in the CSC, 2nd floor of the Bloomsbury building in Gordon Street. Drop the unwanted and come to our boot sales were we re-sell the clothes at ridiculously cheap prices and give part of the income to charity! So far, some people have even donated brand new coats and clothes! Again, we welcome people who might want to help out!


MODO is always ready to get involved in new projects and that's why we always need people responsible for productions of our shows and visual and audio coordinators to make sure our activities are presented well and run smoothly. So come along if you like organising all the practical aspects of a show!


Last, but by no means least, is our volunteering activities. Each year we try to get involved in a number of volunteering projects. So if you want to raise awareness about eco-friendly materials or teach children basic sewing and knitting techniques, join us in our venture to make the world a more eco-aware place!


That's it for now, but don't despair if you haven't found something you like so far. We always love when people suggest new ideas!



If you would like further information come and see us at the UCL Freshers Fayre on the 1st and 2nd October 2009 in the Main Building, Gower Street.


Keep it MODO people :)!