Sacramento Fashion Week (SACFW) celebrating its 7th year anniversary this year, unveiled the selection of designers for this year’s event.
The designer lineup introduced at a press party featured a piece from each designer. The event took place at The Find located at 817 16th Street on Jan. 31.
Sacramento Fashion Week takes place this year from Feb. 24 – Mar. 2.
The Spring/Summer Designer Showcase presents six designers and two featured student designers. Monica Buo, Rebecca Cahua, Britboy Fashions, Maisha Bahati, Jason Powers, Niv Elliot, Samuel Parkinson and Nelli Rosh are the designers featured on Friday, Mar. 1.
The Fall/Winter Designer Showcase features Yennie Zhou, Karisa Gold, Tawnya Jackson, Felix Rodionov, Ryan Douglas, Janelle Cardenas, Michael Kouri and Vasily Vein on Saturday, Mar. 2
Most of the designers will be showing for the first time while a few return from previous years. A Boutique Show and Shop will also be featured on Thursday, Feb. 28.
This year is the first time a boutique runway will be featured. Participating boutiques includes Trumpette, Violet Muse, Felicia Strati, Made To Fit Couture, Article Consignment and Aquamarine Jewelers.
The three runway showcases will take place at the Elks Tower Ballroom.
Beautiful outfits from each of the designers were exhibited at the press party event. Other community representatives from the fashion and other industries joined the gathering to view the magnificent designs.
This year SACFW has chosen the Junior League of Sacramento as the beneficiary for the 2013 event.
Karri Grant made a few announcements and covered some of the events planned during Sacramento Fashion Week.
A representative from the California Film Foundation spoke about the Fashion on Film project that will feature short films with fashion as its focus. The films will be presented on Feb. 27 at the Fusion International Arts Center.
Aimee Gillum, President of Junior League of Sacramento, said a few words about their participation in SACFW. Gillum expressed her gratitude saying, “On behalf of our organization we are very excited about this relationship and being Sacramento Fashion Week’s beneficiary. Our two organizations are very similar. We’re both volunteer based and our mission for both is to develop our members and train them. So for the league side, we’re an all women organization and we are a volunteer and training organization developing the potential of women to become civic and community minded women who go out and make an impact in our community.”
Designers on hand, in dramatic and elegant fashion, walked in and showcased one of their designs worn by their selected models.
Showcasing an outfit from their line the designers stayed to pose for photos and talk to those in attendance.
I took a few minutes to talk to one of the designers showcasing at SACFW for the first time. Jason Powers who founded and designs apparel for The Rampant Fashion Cooperative shared his experience as a designer and being a part of this year’s SACFW.
“I started Rampant three years ago in October 2009” said Powers. When asked if he studied fashion in school Powers indicated that he actually had a degree in business.
Powers spoke about how he started in fashion and said, “It all started because both my mom and my grandma both knit. So I’ve been playing around with texture, pattern and color since I was little so that’s how this whole thing started.” He continued, “Oh my gosh, they had me doing things since I was 6 or 7 years old.”
Powers is a Montana native and indicated he moved about 12 years ago. I asked how many designs he was showing and when. Powers responded saying, “I have 10 designs for Sac Fashion Week. I will be showing on March 1.
When asked how he found out about SACFW Powers responded, “I had been in contact with Sacramento Fashion Week since last year. I chose not to participate in last year’s event. I wasn’t ready so I held everything back and got creative and got into this year’s event ready to go.”
My final question for Powers was to ask him what was the hardest and easiest part of the application process to be in this year’s SACFW. Powers did not hesitate and stated, “Waiting! The hardest thing was waiting. I feel like I waited forever I kept waiting for my phone to ring. The easiest part though I think was the submission process. It was super easy it was very detailed so once you have your design set, things go really easy. The hardest part was the waiting.”
Powers ended by saying, “I’m looking forward to doing Sac Fashion Week and perhaps do L.A. Fashion Week at the end of the month. It’s all very exciting.” Powers’ family is still in Montana but indicated his mom would be coming to see his showing.
Modeling a Yennie Zhou white design model Heather Dominguez-Cuevas also talked to me about the event. I asked Dominguez-Cuevas if she walked the runway for SACFW last year. “Yes I did, this will be my third time. This year I’m walking for Yennie Zhou and Maisha Bahati. I will be here Friday and Saturday night.”
When asked about her experience with SACFW Dominguez-Cuevas answered, “I’ve met a lot of really good friends. More than anything I’ve had a really good time meeting people and it’s helped me network outside of Sac Fashion Week so it’s been a really great network experience for me.”
Regarding schooling and what she wanted to study the model said, “I just left ARC and I’m looking for somewhere to transfer. I’m still trying to figure what I want to concentrate on and right now it looks like education.”
It was fascinating listening to Dominguez-Cuevas answer when and why she got into modeling, “I used to get picked on because of my height when I was in high school all the time. I was really awkward and tall. I was always the tallest kid in my class. One day a girl that I was friends with she said ‘you know you should really just model’ and I decided to do it and it’s worked out really well for me.”
Regarding advice for a young model starting out in the business she said, “If you want to do it you really have to want it. You have to fight for it. Network but be smart. The most important thing is to be smart and do your research. That’s more important than anything other than being tall. Being tall really helps.”
When asked what Dominguez-Cuevas was most looking forward to, the confident model enthusiastically said, “I’m looking forward to walking for Yennie because Yennie is the best designer in the world! Also the opportunity for networking!”
The final touches in preparation for Sacramento Fashion Week continues in the coming weeks. Designers will work up until the last minute to bring their designs to life. SACFW staff will also be working to present a series of scheduled events during Sacramento Fashion Week.
Tickets for the major showcases are now on sale. Log on to the Sacramento Fashion Week for information on the events planned.
Last year’s event sold out and the same is expected to happen this year. Tickets are already on sale and can be purchased via Eventbrite.
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