WWW: Highlighting The Highlighter
Neon highlighter yellow: a color that most likely has not taken over the inside of your closet (aside from some cool accessories and eye catching shoes). But for one of UCLA’s biggest campus cults, highlighter yellow has become a symbol and a key identifier. Enter, the classic highlighter t-shirts of the Pediatric AIDS Coalition. (Also lovingly known as PAC!)
Photo from @pac_ucla Instagram
First worn to call attention to themselves on campus, this bright color became a staple way for other members of the org to identify each other while making their way throughout campus. The color also serves as a unifier, with the shirts being worn at all official PAC functions.
This brilliantly colorful essential piece of PAC merchandise is handed out every year to members new and old. Each year, a different design is graced onto the shirts by members of the talented design committee (with this year’s shirt being designed by PAC’s design committee head, Matthew Go.) The reveal of each design is announced every year during one of the first meetings of fall quarter, and the reveal is always a hyped up event. For longtime PAC members, each highlighter represents another memory and another successful year under their belt. They are treated like treasured collectors items rather than just another t-shirt that is no longer commissioned for use.
Photo from @pac_ucla Instagram
But those iconic and striking highlighters are not the only fashion that the PAC team is producing. PAC is a student org that is generous with their fashionable merchandise. From the comfy lounge pieces that are exclusively sold to the members of the coalition to the t-shirt that is given to every participant of PAC’s biggest fundraising event, Dance Marathon, the variety of fashion this student org provides does not disappoint.
Photo from @pac_ucla Instagram
All of this fashionable self promotion is not purely just for the uniformity of the Pediatric AIDS Coalition. As stated before, the famously eye-catching highlighters were originally (and still) used to draw the eyes of campus to those wearing and promoting. But what is it that is being promoted? PAC’s annual fundraiser event, otherwise known as Dance Marathon. This year’s Dance Marathon (currently known as Take A Stand Week) will be happening this Spring, and registration is live! Whether it be that you are looking to take a piece of complimentary PAC supplied fashion home with you or you are interested in seeing what the people sporting the highlighters do, you should definitely come check it out.
Example of one of the many ways that highlighters are styled by members of PAC
While most in the fashion world associate highlighter yellow with rave fashion or active wear, this group of students on campus see the color as a sign of community. They see the highlighter yellow as a symbol of comradery and commitment to their goal of fighting for an AIDS free generation. PAC’s unity being founded off of highlighter yellow t-shirts goes to show the power of fashion. Whether that is helping people get noticed on Bruin Walk or unifying people under one cause, fashion ties everyone together is an effective way. Clothing has power, and the people of PAC sure know how to wield it to their advantage.
Ali Wood