Fashion is first understood as clothing, textiles and silhouette, yet never thought through what it can be: action. Co-coordinators Sarah Delgado and Naomi Quintana will exemplify this in their upcoming fashion show, “Into The Æther,” set to debut on Oct. 31.

In this feature interview with The Collegian, Delgado and Quintana share how their day-to-day lives have cultivated the process of forming this dreamlike, surrealist space.

Sarah Delgado

Delgado is a fashion enthusiast, model, journalist, editor-in-chief of the “In The ‘No” magazine, writer for Scientia’s Fashion and co-coordinator for “Into The Æther.”

She credits her introduction to music as her gateway to fashion. Delgado began dressing alternatively in fourth grade at the age of nine when her father made her a CD with well known bands like The Cure, Metallica, Dazing and Deftones.

This led to a spark of curiosity.

“I would go on the internet and search up what these bands would look like, and then I saw Deftones, for example,” Delgado said. “All dark clothing, and then their fans are dressed in spiked bracelets, chokers, fishnets, they’re really just out there. So that’s how I started. And then slowly it got more bolder and more aggressive.”

Delgado shared how her means of expression affected the way others treated her.

“Because I was so different than my peers, I did get bullied, like, quite a bit,” Delgado said. “But that’s okay, because I feel like now as an adult, I can look back and say, like, ‘Okay, well, at least I was finding myself then,’ and I could say now confidently that I know who I am.”

These ventures in self-expression followed Delgado into her adult life. On the day of the interview, Delgado had been listening to “Alone” by The Cure, a tease to their new album, Songs of a Lost World, their first in 16 years.

She then spoke of how her time as lifestyle editor at The Collegian and president of Fashion Inc. influenced her decision in managing fashion shows.

As lifestyle editor, Delgado was able to form connections with key artists, like Angel Lesnikowski and Jose Soria, who now play an important role in the art installations for “Into The Æther.”

As president of Fashion Inc., she found her true calling.

“Being able to manage all those people, all those models, and then have people come to me [for the ‘The Enchanted Forest’] then direct them and guide them into the space was something that I ended up being really good at,” Delgado said.

Delgado then added a key contributor to “Into The Æther,” Naomi Quintana.

Naomi Quintana

Quintana is a designer, seamstress, model, creative director and co-coordinator for “Into The Æther.”

Delgado spoke on how the two know each other. Delgado had already been working in the Moon Room at Fashion Fair. Quintana would visit often as she was also very spiritual, something Delgado did not know. After many conversations together, Quintana became a regular and ultimately began to work with Delgado in the Moon Room.

Quintana spoke of her upbringing as a creative force and the cause for her five-year break.

She experienced the loss of two key figures: a close friend and her father. Her friend was involved in the art, culture and music scene in Fresno while attending Broadway studios in various ways.

“That was a huge hit for me, and it made me recognize just how short life really is and how it’s important to pay attention to things that fulfill us in this lifetime, and push for that because you never know who is going to inspire, who can come together, to help create something,” Quintana said.

Quintana started designing clothes at the age of 16, a pivotal point in her development where she moved from cities like Selma to Fresno. Her father, a hairstylist for roughly 46 years, often did hair for fashion shows like the St. Agnes Fashion Show, Trashique and White Hot Summer Night.

She shared her experience working with her father.

“I had the opportunity to kind of attend these shows and shadow and help out and learn from a lot of the stylists,” Quintana said. “And I kind of just grew up in that industry, and he was very supportive of everything I did creatively.”

Quintana had designed clothes for “The Enchanted Forest.” She explained her reason for coming back into the scene.

“It just felt like all of these losses back to back in my life, and I needed something to focus my energy on and kind of bring me back to life, in a way,” Quintana said.

This sentiment carries over into her daily dressing routine. Clothes, to Naomi, feel like armor.

“When I’m waking up and I’m not feeling good and I’m having a bad day, and I need something to kind of perk me up, I gotta be in charge of how I do that,” Quintana said. “I have to be the one to kind of shift my energy throughout the day.”

Now, Quintana is designing clothes for “Into The Æther.”

She is letting the image reveal itself as she develops the upcoming collection, but she understands the energy surrounding it. Her common influences of ‘70s and ‘60s fashion, particularly the silhouettes that resemble medieval styles, serve as an inspiration. This is also seen in her fascination with psychedelic rock, classic rock and other singers like Billie Holiday.

A shining element in her collection are tarot cards. She described picking the cards intuitively to delve into her subconscious mind. She found that following her spirituality reflected a hidden energy inside both the collection and herself.

Into the Æther

In between these varying aesthetics is one connection: spiritualism, the main focus of “Into the Æther.” Delgado and Quintana explained their hopes for the fashion show.

“There’s no one way to do fashion,” Delgado said. “There’s many layers, there’s many elements, there’s many things that make up a person. And so when we came up with the surrealism theme and thinking of the dreamscape, the dreamscape can be anything you want it to be. So it really goes hand in hand with fashion, because fashion is anything you want it to be, surrealism and dreamscape are anything you want it to be, whether that looks pink or dark.”

Quintana elaborated on their decision for making Halloween the date for the fashion show. She wanted a “thinning of the veil,” a night where freedom takes the forefront.

“I kind of wanted to combine the idea that you should always give yourself the space to kind of explore what’s going on within and without,” Quintana said. “I thought it would be a cool theme for all of these different creatives to come together and have the opportunity to express themselves and really play with that theme. It can go anywhere, anything goes.”

Francisco Rodriguez, designer and a well respected figure in the Fresno fashion community, gave insight on his own collection.

“The objects are dreamlike, materials like paper wire, chicken wire, paper mache, and things of that nature, almost like a child,” Rodriguez said. “And then incorporate traditional elements of couture, like ball gowns, opera coats, you know, corsets, bustiers, and just make them extremely, extremely large, to the point where they look like cloud dresses or just sculptures of paper.”

He also shared why he believes having the fashion show is important in the first place.

“For the fashion community, I think that’s going to be helpful to boost us up even more, to bring in local artists, local bands because the grunge and punk scene is super well informed here,” Rodriguez said. “So I feel like if we just incorporate all of those people into the fashion show as well, that hopefully more people in the community of Fresno, in the Central Valley, will take us more seriously. It’s not just a frou–frou fashion show, you know, it’s like we’re part of the community too, so that’s what my goal is in Fresno, to spread more awareness.”

Awareness is crucial, but a point that emerges through the psychedelic, self-expression, loss and spiritualism found in “Into The Æther” is a question posed by Quintana.

“I think it’s a good question we should all be asking ourselves, you know, ‘what’s in my head,’” Quintana said. “Like, to know thyself is the beginning of all wisdom. So a huge part of the show overall is to question things. Question what’s around you, question what’s within you.”