Florida A&M University‘s marching band, affectionately known as the Marching 100, recently brought their HBCU flair to Paris Fashion Week, performing at the Louis Vuitton Men’s Spring/Summer 2023 (SS23) show.
FAMU’s incomparable Marching 100 performing at the Men’s SS23 Louis Vuitton show today in Paris pic.twitter.com/1cCXZnP9d1
— Aiyana N. Ishmael (@aiyanaish) June 23, 2022
The event went down on Thursday, giving the FAMU Marching 100 members a game-changing opportunity to show off their skills overseas.
“I’m honored to be one of the members selected, not only to represent Florida A&M University but also America at the Louis Vuitton Fashion Show,” Drum Major Jarvis Rittman, a senior studying health science, said ahead of the trip. “It’s a new experience for me being from Quincy, Florida. It’s very new to me.”
“It is going to be stressful, but it’s a great responsibility,” clarinet player Kimieka Dunkley, a senior computer science student, added. “It’s something we are going to have to put all our efforts in. I am happy to be part of this hard-working team.”
#LVMenSS23
“Strange Math”. A cinematic prelude to the next #LouisVuitton Men’s show explores the relationship between imagination and reality. Watch the fashion show live on June 23rd at 2:30 pm (CEST) on Twitter or at https://t.co/ohg72TTDcF pic.twitter.com/EGTaAStNw5— Louis Vuitton (@LouisVuitton) June 23, 2022
All in all, 35 FAMU band members were selected to participate in the event and were accompanied by about a dozen staff members.
The news was initially announced earlier this month and the Marching 100 departed for Paris on Saturday, June 18. Over the following days, they were hard at work preparing for their performance.
“I’m just so excited for our students to have this opportunity,” Dr. Shelby Chipman, FAMU’s Director of Bands, noted. “It’s a credit to our band students and to our institution to do everything to promote the FAMU brand.”
Darryl L. Baker, Assistant Director of Marching and Pep Bands, also spoke on the opportunity.
“You cannot do a major thing without teamwork,” he began. “For the shining stars of the school, the Marching 100, to be able to do this, it’s great.”
“Louis Vuitton said, ‘We want to do this.’ They asked, ‘What are your issues? If you can get over here, we will take care of you,'” Baker continued. “They wanted to have that representation here. It speaks to the legacy of the FAMU Marching 100 that they were willing to invest in this group of American students.”
What do you think of the marching band’s performance?
