Pic via WWD

FSO's Art of Contrast Fashion Show is just days away! This year's theme is Destination Tokyo. We are so excited to see all your amazing designs and styling inspired by Tokyo and Japanese street style and culture. With the show coming up this Saturday, we wanted to share a little Tokyo street style to inspire you to maybe incorporate some of the aspects into your own style.

Ciao fellow FSO members!

It’s Ashley here, coming to you live from Florence, Italy! I still can’t even believe my fellow classmates and I have been here for over a month. I’ve been taking in new sights, tastes and cultures and the study abroad experience has surpassed even my highest expectations so far. While on the study tour with Kent State, we get to visit some pretty incredible places, one of those being Paris! This past week, all of the fashion students embarked on our adventure to France and I’m here to tell you about some of the best highlights. (Even though it’s nearly impossible to narrow down!)

Hello, fashionistas and fasionistos with school really kicking off, summer is slowly beginning to become a distant memory. However, to keep the magic of summer alive, we are ending the Adventures of a Fashionista series with my trip to Niagara Falls. Recently, I took a weekend trip to Niagara Falls, Canada, to explore and take in the magical views of the falls. Only a four-hour drive from Kent State, Niagara Falls is the perfect weekend trip to take during the semester when you’re short on money and time, but need a little trip to get away. Here are my top five picks of things to do at Niagara Falls:

5. Floral Showhouse

The floral showhouse at Niagara Falls puts on a wonderful display of flowers, succulents, and tropical plants. For only $5 you can explore the greenhouse and the outdoor grounds, both full of lush greenery. This place is nice to spend an hour at walking around admiring the flowers in full bloom, no matter what season it may be.

4. Queen Victoria Place Restaurant

By far the best restaurant I ate at during the whole trip. Not only was the food good and fresh, the views were amazing. Located diagonally from the falls, you may even get some mist on you while sitting on the patio.

3. Journey Behind The Falls

For $17.50 you can take the journey down 150 feet to the base of the falls to get a different view of the 13 story falls. At the bottom, you can venture out onto the viewing deck, but be warned you will leave slightly wet. Although ponchos are provided they are no match to the falls. After checking out the view from the observation deck, you can venture through the tunnels that take you directly behind the falls where you can see the water rushing down.

2. Butterfly Conservatory / Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens

The Butterfly Conservatory, which is located inside the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, was one of my favorite places to explore. The Conservatory is home to over 2,000 butterflies, all of which will be flying around you from flower to flower. If you’re lucky some may even land right on you. After watching the butterflies, you can head outside and walk around the spacious Botanical Gardens which contains a rose garden, vegetable plants, and many, many more fresh flowers.

1. Niagara Falls

The falls are hands down the main attraction to see. Viewing of the falls can take place anywhere around the city, either on the Skylon Tower, SkyWheel, or just walking to the viewing sites. While walking around the falls I recommend following the paths that lead past the falls for some nice views of the river before it all rushes down to the bottom of the falls.

To read about what I wore while in Niagara Falls, click here.

Here's to More Adventures!

xoxo Faith Zwicker

Welcome to another year of FSO! This year is bound to be the best year yet with our upcoming fashion shows, new videographer, and countless new members bringing their own unique style to our wonderful club. With the new year comes new board members! This year we have a wonderful panel of ladies ready for a successful and fashionable year. We wanted to introduce you to our board this year and share some fun facts about their dream jobs, majors, and MORE! 

Europe has a certain beauty that can’t be found anywhere else. Just one step off of the airplane and I was ready for nine days of pure bliss. The first stop in my Europe adventure was the City of Love, Paris. That is certainly what happened, I fell in love with the city. Everything from the streets to the main attractions.

Planning a girls’ weekend in the Big Apple with my friends felt like a dream. Bright lights, busy streets, Broadway, fashion icons, and skyscrapers for miles. I’ve been obsessed with the idea of New York for as long as I can remember, and I never pass up a chance to visit. Whoever said stepping into adulthood is horrible, clearly forgot the part about finally being able to check into a hotel by themselves. We spent only a couple days making reservations and planning an itinerary before we were set and ready to go!

Pic from Margo & Me

With the end of summer approaching, many of us students are preparing to start another semester at Kent State. Some may be looking forward to getting back on the beautiful campus at Kent; however, others may have a different, exciting adventure in store from abroad! While I thought packing for a dorm in college was difficult, packing for an entire semester all within a few suitcases is an entirely different feat. But don’t worry! I (along with some advice from other classmates) have managed to come up with a few tips to make packing a little bit easier on you for your time abroad!

What is the best part about summer? The fashion of course! There are so many fun trends this summer that fashionistas are rocking from Rome to NYC.  Summer is the perfect time to play with your style because there are so many new trends hitting the streets. Today, FSO is sharing their favorite summer trends with you!

Crazy for Gingham

We are back our fellow Fashionistas and Fashionistos with a brand new series about our summer adventures called The Adventures of a Fashionista (or Fashionisto). I will be starting this series with my recent trip to the City of Angeles. I just got back from my Los Angeles Study Away Tour exploring the fashion industry on the West Coast. My trip was (not to be dramatic) life-changing, because of the connections I've made, life-long friendships that have blossomed, and the person I have become. 

NYC, there's something about you! The Fashion Student Organization (FSO) had a chance to visit the city that never sleeps this past weekend, which included seeing the Kent State NYC Studio and the FIT Museum along with many other attractions. New York City is a truly magical and inspiring place, where people come to chase their dreams. In the case of the girls from FSO, this dream is FASHION. New York City is a dream for any fashionista, due to the countless stores on Fifth Avenue and Soho for shopping as well as the street style found anywhere from Manhattan to Brooklyn for style inspiration. FSO girls truly know how to walk the streets of NYC as if they were a runway. The best thing about FSO is everyone has their own unique style, but we all have a passion for fashion. Check out all of the street style from our fellow FSO members!

Bianca Oliver {@becoming_bianca} enjoying a morning stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge.

FSO is thrilled to share our first member featured #FSOLove blog post EVER! We wanted to feature our fabulous members, as a way to showcase their talent and style. This month we will be featuring seven our lovely FSO fashionistas. 

Samantha, @thetrendynut, is a CollegeFashionista style guru and shares her daily style on her Instagram which we are just dying over! We love this featured #FSOLove outfit, everything from the lace-up flats to the oversized tee is perfection.

FSO is back and bigger than ever! We are now two meetings in to the second semester of the 2016-2017 school year, and so much has already begun. During the first meeting of the year, we were introduced to our new PR Girl, Autumn Barney! Along with a new PR Girl, FSO is starting a new campaign on social media called #FSOLOVE. Any member can use the hashtag on Instagram or Twitter, which may be featured on FSO’s social media pages at the end of each month!

No Valentine’s Day plans this year? Girl, you’re not alone. Celebrate your independence the day before on Galentine’s Day! The holiday brought to you by Parks and Recreation is all about the ladies.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Find the right gift for every friend in your life this holiday season. We’ve put together a few ideas!

On November 19th, the new student organization ”Dress Up for Downs” put on their first fashion show partnering with the local Down syndrome community. This event was definitely like non other, with pride sparkling from every member, participant, and viewer of the show. The show opened with a small talk from the director of program development who explained how important groups like this were for the downs community to feel involved on campus and appreciated. From there, the show itself was an overall joy with uncountable surprises and lots and lots of dancing. Each member of the club was paired with a downs syndrome person (of all ages) to create an outfit that made them feel comfortable and fit their bodies. It was clear that the models were comfortable in not only their outfits, but also their own skin; each one shined as they danced their way down the runway with the audience constantly clapping and cheering along! Other than the amazing time had by all, the show had other successes in that it sold out the whole of Rockwell Auditorium and was also able to raise over $1000 for the Downs community.

This upcoming Tuesday, November 29 is our last FSO meeting of the semester! We’ll be celebrating the holidays with our 2nd annual ugly holiday sweater contest, a performance from The Kent Clarks, and some Insomnia cookies and milk! All the fun plus some special speakers begins at 6pm in the Rockwell Auditorium.

It’s that time of year again; Thanksgiving! I have always enjoyed Thanksgiving because it’s a time to spend with family and friends as well as to eat amazing food, but I think this year is even more special because I haven’t been home since I’ve been in college. Maybe some of you are in the same boat, and therefore this Thanksgiving is even more exciting than most. Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for whatever you have. Since most often we don’t think about all that we are blessed with, this time of year is the perfect time to step back and look at all that you have, whether that be family, friends, shelter, food, etc. Today I am sharing with you some reason why FSO members are thankful this year.