The relationship between the University and Victoria’s Secret may be getting more serious, with the University entering the “Fabulous Four” round of the clothing brand’s latest outreach to college students.

At the beginning of April, 59 colleges were entered into the PINK Collegiate Showdown, a competition where students could vote for their university to win a party hosted by PINK, a sub-venue of the clothing brand Victoria’s Secret.

The bracket-style competition is set up similarly to that of March Madness, where colleges are eliminated in rounds after a certain amount of days. Instead of playing games against each other, each university advances towards the next round based on student voting online. The college with the highest amount of votes after each round moves on to the next bracket.

The University has been affiliated with PINK as part of its campus representative internship program over the past three years. At the beginning of each school year, two students are selected to be campus reps where they work with PINK to promote the brand and its fashion trends on campus.

Ashley Lawless, University campus rep and senior in Media, said Victoria’s Secret’s relationship with the University has a lot to do with the campus’s large population and interest in sports.

“PINK targets their brand to the young, healthy-lifestyle college girls who are intelligent, motivated and interested in athletics,” Lawless said. “We’re the perfect school for them to represent because Illinois is filled with this exact type of women.”

At various stores on campus where Illinois apparel is sold such as the Illini Union Bookstore or T.I.S. bookstore, students can find a PINK clothing line dedicated to the Fighting Illini.

“U of I students are big sports fans here, and PINK sees that and designs their clothes to appeal to those students,” Lawless said.

Sherry Kwon, sophomore in LAS, is a frequent PINK Illini customer.

“Sometimes when I’m wearing just regular college apparel that say U of I, I feel kind of ordinary,” Kwon said. “Victoria’s Secret takes it and they add a little spunk to it with bright colors or sequins. Those kinds of things are the things that girls find appealing.”

With the University still in its early stages of its affiliation with PINK, Lawless and co-campus representative Brittany Rollheiser have held a few events on campus to promote PINK.

In fall 2010, Lawless and Rollheiser organized a PINK clothing drive as part of a sorority philanthropy. Every sorority had a chance to donate clothes to the Salvation Army, and the sorority with the most donations won a free Victoria’s Secret fashion show viewing.

In early February, Lawless and Rollheiser continued with publicity events with a yoga-brand promotion where they worked with Campus Recreation and held a PINK-sponsored fitness class. Members who joined wore articles from PINK’s yoga line, and were given free products at the end of the class.

Although the University’s affiliation with PINK is still considered new, Lawless expects further growth in the future.

“As time goes on, I think all the events that PINK sponsors will become more and more popular with the students on campus,” Lawless said. “The fact that Illinois is already doing so well in the Collegiate Showdown just proves the student body’s growing dedication and interest in PINK.”