BENTONVILLE - The scene at Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week’s Designer Runway Show on March 6 looks much like how the town of Bentonville was described by USA Today in a June headline: “‘Mayberry’ goes Manhattan.” With emphasis, this night, on the “Manhattan.”
It’s the third year for Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week, which now has Mercedes-Benz as its sponsor - just like New York Fashion Week - and which kicked off with two shopping nights and an industry launch party, and finishes up with two boutique shows.
The setting is the 21c Museum Hotel - a slick boutique hotel near Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a contemporary art museum in itself, and notably voted The No. 1 Hot New Hotel in the U.S. by TripAdvisor. It boasts a modern interior and widely-spaced, thought-provoking exhibits that are hard to see in light of the sold-out crowd of attendees, chatting and sipping libations in and outside the bar area of the hotel’s restaurant, The Hive, as they await the start of the show. Guests also gather at another bar set up in the lobby area or wander down a congested hallway off which are the model preparation rooms. Photographers shoot photos of some of the models amid the controlled chaos.
Other attendees are lining up outside the doors to Gallery One, the long hallway-type room where models will enter, and proceed into the Main Gallery. In both rooms, opposing double rows of chairs are lined up on each side of what will be a runway path. The models will enter Gallery One, follow its length to the entrance of the Main Gallery, make a right, loop around a treelike sculpture on a high draped pedestal (itself framed by a single row of VIP seats), then go back the way they came.
As is usually the case at fashion shows, members of the crowd prove to be just as people-watching-worthy as the show’s models … women in evening and cocktail attire and black leather; thin, elegant men in bright, very slim-fit dress pants, contrasting sport jackets and shirts and expensive-looking loafers with no socks.
A standout among the designer show crowd is Payton Bridewell of Fayetteville, who’s decked out in a smart vintage gold pillbox hat with turned-up edges; Jackie-O lightly tinted sunglasses and a white, faux fur-trim jacket over a blue, solar-system patterned dress she says was “thrifted from Goodwill.” Bridewell is a social marketer, public relations specialist and fashion enthusiast who likes to “play dress-up daily” at her blog, thewindowshopper.com.
Bridewell got her first taste of Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week when she attended one night of the first event. Her relationship with the event developed when co-founder Jade Terminella asked her to help with public relations. Bridewell went on to serve as master of ceremonies in 2013.
PHILANTHROPY TOOL
As a whole, “in terms of giving back to our community, it’s wonderful,” Bridewell says of fashion week. “I think it also presents a platform for aspiring designers in Northwest Arkansas and the surrounding area that didn’t exist before.” She knows of several up-and-coming area designers who have been helped by the event, including Kata Mari, Leslie Pennel and Wayne Bonner-Bell.
The show is scheduled for 8:30 but begins late, not an unusual occurrence as fashion shows go. After a couple of warnings for guests to take their seats and a gentle admonishment not to let their comings and goings during the show interfere with the models’ catwalk struts, host Mark Landon Smith appears with a greeting and introduces a humorous film featuring the snobby “Jan and Jann” design team he says dressed him for the evening.
Then comes a reminder of how Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week is benefiting the community, namely, a slew of local charities getting a piece of the proceeds pie: Art Amiss (whose designers’ work was featured in the final segment), Junior League of Northwest Arkansas, the Miller McNeil Woodruff Foundation, Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter, Ozark Guidance, Restore Humanity, 7 Hills Homeless Center, Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Northwest Arkansas, Spay Arkansas, Teen Action and Support Center (TASC) and Youth Strategies.
Without further ado, the show begins. First up: flowy evening designs from the “University of Arkansas designers” - named in the program as Hannah Holt, Hannah West, Shan Gao, Tiara Hudson, Ashley Treece and Alejandra Gonzalez. Then comes the colorful, preppy menswear of Christian Michael. Detail-rich mini-shifts and evening gowns by Brittany Nicole. Felix Bui’s cocktail frocks and cool white evening gowns. African-print tops, bodices and peplumed dresses by Little Rock-based Judith & James, the breakout line by Anna Taylor that recently made its debut in New York. Several sleek ensembles by N.A. Martin, models complete with blond bob wigs.Houndstooth and other black and white combos - along with wedding attire - compliments of Material Concepts by Ashley Little. Printed fabric jewelry accessories by Joyn, made by artists in northern India. And, finally, the creations of the designers of the Art Amiss collective - quirky, dark, side-eye-inducing and thought-provoking, with various themes present: gang bangers, twisted Disney characters with costumes made from recycled material, black-clad models with accessories of bone.
Models move in a hurry, rather than using the traditional slow, shoulders-back, hips-forward, one foot-in-front-of-the-other gait (a fellow attendee overheard that they were given only two minutes of walk time around the meandering route). Because there’s not a raised catwalk and no intermission, some guests ignore the admonition to stay seated while the models are up. One attendee high-fives all the models during one designer’s finale.
Afterward, showgoers linger for more drinking, socializing and exhibit perusing in the bar and lobby areas, as well as getting their photo flip books made at a booth set up by Mertins Family Eye Care & Optical’s clinic in Fayetteville.JOINT EFFORT
“I thought [the show] was really fun,” Bridewell says afterward. “I loved the environment of 21c and extra-long runway. It’s fantastic to see the talent of all the local designers.”
She does, however, feel the show “may have gone on a little too long without any breaks, causing people to get up and move about instead of waiting for the end. I couldn’t believe I was seeing people get up and walk around while the models were on the runway.” (This wasn’t the case with the boutique shows, which took place at the old Daily Record building in Bentonville and featured a raised catwalk.)
Before Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week, “a lot of the boutiques [in] the area had been doing shows …[they were] all doing their own thing to kind of raise money for different organizations,” says Jordan Sherrod of Fayetteville, who co-founded the event with Terminella. “So they came together and decided, instead of dividing their efforts, just to combine them into one.”
Terminella, co-founder of Lola Boutique in Fayetteville, brought extensive fashion experience to the event, while Sherrod brought his experience as owner of Strut, a company that works with boutiques, primarily women’s boutiques, to help them sell their products through e-commerce.
The inaugural 2012 Fashion week was received well, Sherrod says. “We got a lot of really good feedback.” People noted that not only was it nice to see the local designers, but local designers with complete shows - “a really cohesive look that was presented very well.” ON THE FASHION MAP
The fashion week, which took place in Fayetteville locations the previous years, has grown with each occurrence, Sherrod says. “This definitely was our largest event.” At the time this went to press, he did not know the amount raised for the charities - but “ everything is looking really good with what we’ve been able to do this year. Overall, we’re really excited about the progress we’ve made.”
Although the store focus and the charities are a good, and popular, combination, Bridewell says, she likes seeing the fresh designs.
“It’s a catch-22 because if you only included designers it wouldn’t make money and if you only include boutiques, it’s a styling demonstration, not a fashion show,” she says.
“I think it does a good job of combining the two, considering the size of our area.”
She says she’d like to see an Arkansas Fashion Week someday, perhaps with the shows divided according to season between Little Rock and Fayetteville … where, these days, “there seems to be more of an open mind toward self-expression.”
Style, Pages 29 on 03/18/2014