Have you ever wondered what a dress would look like if it were made completely out of condoms? Look no further than CWU’s annual Condom Fashion Show, which will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Designers will be given 600 condoms each to create unique pieces which will be modeled on a runway for hundreds of CWU students.

Jasmine Washington, a peer health educator at the Wellness Center, will be hosting the fashion show for the second year in a row. According to Washington, the main goal of the event is to encourage students to take responsibility over their sexual health and to know their options when it comes to contraceptives and getting tested.

“There’s this stigma behind getting yourself tested that we want to break out of to make people more comfortable in getting tested frequently,” Washington said.

She adds that sexual health education is important because one in two people will get an STD before the age of 25, and some people are not aware of all of their options.

According to Doug Fulp, Assistant Director of Wellness, 72 percent of students that attend CWU are sexually active but may not have received the best sexual education, which is where the fashion show comes in.

“At surface level it looks like it’s just an awareness event,” Fulp said. “But what we’ve found through a lot of our different programming is that a lot of people don’t have comprehensive sexual health education, so we try to fill in the gaps in a really fun way.”

Fulp says the Wellness Center takes a public health approach when it comes to education. Everything they teach is completely research based with statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) among other reputable sources.

“We need to make sure we are getting people accurate information so they can make educated and informed decisions,” Fulp said.

Fulp emphasized that the Wellness Center is judgement free when it comes to topics of sexual health and responsibility, and they aim to erase the stigma behind these topics and start a conversation about healthy sexual habits with this event.

Designers, models, and students alike look forward to the condom fashion show every year. Fulp brought the event to CWU from Montana State University, where he was a health educator. He said that he enjoys seeing how the event evolves and improves each year. He added that he loves to see the ballroom filled with students who are excited about sexual education.

Hannah Oliver and Karina Solorio make up one of the design teams participating in the show this year. This is their first year designing for the condom fashion show and they are excited to start the designing process as well as seeing what other designers can come up with. Oliver said they decided to participate in the event because of its emphasis on health education.

“We think sexual health is really important and [it’s important] to promote that, in particular on a college campus,” Oliver said.

According to Washington, this year’s fashion show will have a theme centered around “throwbacks.” The idea behind the theme is to encourage people of all age groups to take responsibility for their sexual health.

“Every generation should have the tools to live a healthier and safer life,” Washington said.

This year’s fashion show will also feature new categories for faculty and staff, clubs and organizations, and residence halls. So far, there are seven designers signed up for the event. The Wellness Center encourages students to sign up for the fashion show before Feb. 1.