(Elks Tower Ballroom)
The Emerging Designers Fashion Show on Friday night officially started off with KCRA’s Kristin Marshall serving as Showcase Host for this Sacramento Fashion Week event. Hours before the actual fashion show began designers, models, hair and makeup artists, interns, producers, vendors, caterers, video camera, light and sound technicians worked up to the last minute backstage before Kristin Marshall took the stage.
AMPED Entertainment provided dance entertainment. They recently also performed at the Diversity Wedding held in Citrus Heights. AMPED can be booked and contacted to perform throughout Northern California by logging on to their web page.
The Emerging Designers Fashion Showcase was held at the newly refurbished Ballroom in the historic Elks Tower. Emerging Designers featured some of the hottest styles and fashion. Designers Audrey Jade, Faatui (Tui) Toele, Maisha Bahati, Brenda Vie, Kira Martinson, Nkaujer Jules Thor, and Noognuv Thao were scheduled to showcase their designs for the evening’s enthusiastic crowd.
Aubrey Jade has been involved in the fashion industry in Sacramento and during the past few months has been involved in several fashion shows. I may have missed her because I did not see her take the stage. Aubrey started her design business in 2007 and continues to showcase her line of clothing.
Another designer was Brenda Villalta for Brenda Vie. She is a designer born in Los Angeles and raised in Sacramento. Brenda has already received recognition and awards for her designs. Her designs were very colorful with models displaying beautiful hair and makeup complementing her designs.
Tui Toele is working toward his Bachelor’s Degree at the Fashion Design & Marketing at International Academy of Design & Technology in Sacramento. I’ve previously seen some of his work. I saw him at the same event as Aubrey Jade late last year. He was also one of the designers who attended the Sacramento Fashion Week Launch Party. Fashion has always been a passion for Toele who’s learned the trade from the ground up. His main interest has been as a stylist and has only been designing for about a year and half.
Kira Martinson’s designs also showcased some wonderful designs. Kira graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco and has an A.A. in Fashion Design. She is currently a student at California State University, Sacramento. Her designs for the show included stylish coats, elegant dresses and jewelry that complemented each other.
Maisha Bahati is a self taught designer that began her fashion career in 2003 and started her label MaishaDahati in 2010. She is based in Sacramento and has already created designs for celebrities, boutiques and bridal events. Her designs showcased at the show were very colorful one piece outfits with some of the models wearing afro wigs ala Foxy Brown. Many of her designs draped around her models very elegantly.
I’ve seen Nkaujer Jules Thor’s designs showcased twice and before each of her events I was backstage and noticed she was working on sewing some items together up to the last minute. Friday night was no exception as she worked on outfits her models wore and was on the sewing machine as well doing some last minute modifications. Her showcase designs for the evening included a couple of elegant outfits that looked like one piece swimsuits that. Her collection showed several different meticulate outfits.
Noognuv Thao was born and raised in Stockton. While backstage we met Noognuv and it turned out that she is a friend of fellow photographer Tam Nguyen. We met her backstage and she gave us the opportunity to shoot some of her models as they prepared for the show. She’s currently pursuing a psychology major in hopes of becoming either a psychologist or a therapist. Noognuv has been pursuing this industry for the past three years. She has participated in several local fashion shows, and has done custom appareling.
Magnum Opus production did a great job putting Sacramento Fashion Week 2011 together. They put together an impressive cast of sponsors, vendors and fashion industry artists and gurus to provide a great Emerging Designers Fashion Showcase. Make-a-Wish Foundation of Sacramento and Northeastern California also benefited from this Magnum Opus production.
The annual event continues to grow and brings together an emerging Sacramento Fashion community. Next year Sacramento Fashion Week will celebrate its fifth year. Designers, sponsors, models, hair and makeup artists will be looking to participate in this event. The designs exhibited with the Emerging Designers Showcase without a doubt will inspire others in the fashion industry to follow suit and help promote Sacramento’s growing fashion community.
