By Joey Earley | Executive Editor
Variant had the absolute pleasure of being invited to the Anatomy Fashion Show this year, which took place on October 22nd. The Anatomy Fashion Show is hosted by Phi Delta Epsilon, a Pre-Med Fraternity and happens annually across the nation to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Ohio University’s chapter, the Ohio Eta chapter, is in its second year of this event and plans to make it an annual occurrence. Before the event, I had the pleasure of speaking with Olivia Prevost, the co-event coordinator and vice president of finance, and Maya Djalali, the co-event coordinator and vice president of programming. When talking to Maya, she gave me a breakdown of planning and hosting an event like this. Planning began in February of 2023 and continued throughout the summer. Maya and Olivia began getting a committee together of models and artists, working towards getting sponsors for the event and booking the venue. Olivia gave me insight into the show as well, stating, “We had a committee of people who were in charge of getting people to sign up to be models and artists…It was kind of Maya and I [doing] divide and conquer”. Both said that the best part of the show was raising awareness and watching to see everyone’s hard work pay off. When watching the show, it is clear how much love and work was put into it, from the theming to the model’s outfits to the intermission games. It was an honor to witness, from start to finish.
The theme this year was a Circus/Carnival, the different bodily systems represented by different “circus” acts. There were booths set up around the ballroom with games, some of the systems of the human body, and even a spot to “tattoo” someone, arranged with paints and glitter.
This year the Anatomy Fashion Show had a very special guest. The nationwide patient champion, Amelia, and her mother, Lani, opened the show. Lani gave a brief, heart-warming speech about all the work the Children’s Miracle Network hospitals did for her and her daughter. Lani also thanked all of the staff for being so helpful to her and her daughter and inviting them to this event. I’m sure I can speak for everyone when I say, at the end of her speech I was quite choked up. The show itself was wonderful. I am a secret science nerd, though even for those who aren’t, it was quite entertaining. The models did a great job of keeping everyone engaged in their performance, doing “tricks” to represent their specific bodily systems and their correlating circus acts. During intermission they hosted a Kahoot game of biology facts, it was so much fun getting to test my knowledge and see how other people did. At the end of the show, the models walked around so attendees could get an up-close look at the work the artists did. When talking to Maya, she mentioned the artists had been steadily working the week prior, day in and day out to complete the jumpsuits. There was so much detail in the work and as I went up to each model, they made sure to proudly display their outfits. This year’s Anatomy fashion show raised $2,309 for Children Miracle Network Hospitals.
I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to go to the show this year. I cannot recommend the experience enough as it’s clear everyone cares so much about putting on a good show, including the crowd, and raising money for this amazing cause. For more information please check out the Instagram for Phi Delta Epsilon here at Ohio University, @ohiophide, and their website at https://ouphide.wixsite.com/website.
Photos by Mya Slaven