In honor of the Lunar New Year, Columbia’s Asian Alliance partnered with The Rack to host a clothing drive and reorganize its inventory this week, highlighting themes of renewal associated with the Year of the Fire Horse.

The Rack, a student-run clothing closet on the first floor of 916 S. Wabash Ave., offers free donated apparel and accessories to students. The collaboration aimed to refresh its inventory while encouraging students to donate gently used clothing.

Nahyoung Hyun, a senior film and television major and president of Asian Alliance, said that after the new year, it’s tradition to wear new clothes to symbolize “a new transition and a new start,” inspiring the organization to partner with The Rack. 

She said the Year of the Fire Horse represents “energy and transformation,” making this the ideal event to celebrate that theme.

“Just cleaning and replacing the old with the new is a great way of transforming oneself, and the year of the fire horse is a really empowering year for a lot of people,” Hyun said. “Unlike past years, it’s more about you and focusing on your energy and what energy you bring into the world, and I think that’s really cool and empowering.”

The Lunar New Year entering the fire horse is believed to bring fast, exciting change. Though each year is named one of the 12 different animals of the Chinese zodiac, it also rotates between the five traditional Chinese elements — earth, wood, fire, metal and water. This year is the Year of the Fire Horse for the first time in 60 years. 

Alexis De Ocampo, senior advertising major and vice president of Asian Alliance, said that through this event, she hopes to represent the strength of the fire horse while giving back to the Columbia community, while also celebrating Lunar New year traditions, allowing everyone to celebrate and enjoy the fresh start of the new year.

“We want to try to be a representation of staying strong in this new year and also within this current climate by building that camaraderie with our members and also Columbia as well,” she said.

Along with bringing in traditions, the event also gets to bring student awareness to The Rack and the services it offers.

Nicole Perez, a junior animation and computer graphics major and treasurer for Asian Alliance, was excited about getting to bring awareness to it, having visited the rack on her own time before.

“I feel like it’s very useful for a lot of students, especially because these clothes are coming from college students who might have the same interest in clothing styles as well, and I feel like that’s really nice because self-expression is really important,” she said. 

Junior fashion design major Leilani Vega runs The Rack and said that she appreciates the collaboration from Asian Alliance and the sense of community events like this bring.

“I think it’s helpful in a lot of different ways — it not only builds community, but keeps culture alive. I think it brings us all much closer together,” she said.

Student attendee Justin Flores, a senior photography major, saw this as a perfect opportunity to get rid of some of his extra clothes and be a part of Asian Alliance.

“I think any way of celebrating is a good way to celebrate,” he said. “It’s a great way to collaborate.”

Copy edited by Venus Tapang