DRESSING ROOM

Little Rock Fashion Week at end of runway, Campbell says

Johnathan “Balloonatic” Darden holds the hand of a young model during the finale of his July 21, 2016, Little Rock Fashion Week segment. Guests of Little Rock Fashion Week: The Finale are asked to add some green to their attire in memory of Darden, a Shreveport, La. Army veteran who embraced the color in his fight for veterans’ rights. He died in May.
Johnathan “Balloonatic” Darden holds the hand of a young model during the finale of his July 21, 2016, Little Rock Fashion Week segment. Guests of Little Rock Fashion Week: The Finale are asked to add some green to their attire in memory of Darden, a Shreveport, La. Army veteran who embraced the color in his fight for veterans’ rights. He died in May.

The weeklong fashion event that earned its place as a summer staple in the capital city ends its nearly decade-long run this month.

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The prototype for the Aerial Bag, designed by Sheridan native Christopher Belt and garnering him one of his three recent Independent Handbag Designer Awards, will be making its way to Esse Purse Museum.

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Sheridan native Christopher Belt (center) — who captured three awards at the recent Independent Handbag Designer Awards — celebrates with founder Emily Blumenthal and Ken Downing of Neiman Marcus, sponsor of one of the awards.

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A hooded garment by Rosavrai graces the runway during last year’s Little Rock Fashion Week’s Big Night. Little Rock Fashion Week will end its nearly decade-long run with a finale show Saturday at the Statehouse Convention Center.

Little Rock Fashion Week: The Finale (aka Little Rock Fashion Week 9) takes place Saturday in the Caraway rooms at the Statehouse Convention Center. Doors open at 7 p.m. with a reception and vendors, and the show follows at 8, bringing fall fashion by Belk, Cocoa Elite, Cupani Fashion, Runway Seven and The Humble Thread as well as Brandon Campbell's iME clothing.

Guests are asked to don green and black formal wear -- black for the event's "curtain call" and green in honor of its dedication to the late Johnathan "Balloonatic" Darden of Shreveport, who showed his balloon-made fashions in last year's show and who wore green in honor of the fellow veterans for whom he was an advocate. He died in May. Past Fashion Week productions included multiple shows; this final production will be one show only. Tickets are $50 at Littlerockfashionweek.com.

Little Rock Fashion Week debuted in 2009. Event founder Campbell is discontinuing it because, he says, "this is the right time."

"I have two kids ... but Little Rock Fashion Week is like my first child," he says. A parent pours so much into a child, but there comes a time when that child grows up.

"I've given so much to her," he adds, referring to the event. "She's graduating, and I have to learn to just let it go; let her go and live."

Campbell says his favorite Fashion Week moments include the inaugural event and its Young and Fabulous show, a children's show that took place at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. Other favorite moments include the appearance Fashion Week models pulled off during the 2010 Martin Luther King marade, which Campbell calls the "longest runway show ever." In 2015, a block of Main Street was shut down for Fashion Week's Big Night show to take place outside, an undertaking repeated last year.

Campbell feels good about helping to create a talent- and product-showcase platform for students, youths and designers who lacked the budgets to travel to New York or Los Angeles Fashion Week.

Veterans of the event have gone on to bigger and better things: Shonda Ali-Shamaa is just one designer who has shown in New York. Model and intern Bethany Hines is now a producer at CNN. Teenage singer/actor Jacquez "Quizz" Swanigan, who performed at Fashion Week, distinguished himself earlier this year as a contestant on The Voice. Entertainment host/journalist Alexandria Washington, a former intern and show host, is a personality for TMZ.

Campbell says he'll continue to produce Oneofakind Baton Rouge Fashion Week, the fifth of which will take place in February. In addition, he's starting Plano (Texas) Fashion Week, which makes its debut Oct. 29. He will also continue to operate his agency, Oneofakind Talent Inc., and produce his clothing line.

Would he be willing to sell the rights to Little Rock Fashion Week? "That's something I'm open to," he says. He compares selling the rights to giving a daughter away in marriage. "You don't want your daughter to just marry anybody."

FASHION WEEK SPOTLIGHT

Little Rock Fashion Week guests who attended last year will once again be treated to fashion pieces from The Humble Thread, a Cabot boutique begun by Amy Hughes.

The Texas native and military wife started out handcrafting jewelry in her garage. When her husband -- an Alaska native -- returned to civilian life, the couple stayed in Cabot. Four years ago Hughes decided to open a store featuring not only her wares but local, handmade fashions from others as well as "give-back" lines -- products, including hers, whose sale proceeds go to help charities.

A lot of Hughes' local suppliers are "moms working out of their house," she says. The store also offers trendy leather pieces by Circle T Leatherworks LLC -- accessories by Cabot firefighter Cabe Tischler, accented with embroidery by Hughes. "He's a biker ... and I make him do girly stuff," she says.

Having a social work/therapist background, Hughes wanted to combine her two loves: fashion and helping others. "It's been really a fun kind of thing ... and has grown into a really fun exciting venture," she says.

Her customer demographic: women age 24-45. "I like to say that we attract trendy young adults," she says. "And our style is definitely more boho [Bohemian] chic, relaxed, comfortable," with lots of colors and patterns. For the show, she says, "we have something flow-y mixed with structure -- and a lot of texture" with such detailing as pleats, ruffles, lace, crochet and straps. These will be pieces that can be paired with existing wardrobe items.

Hughes and her crew are planning a major new-season launch Aug. 5. The Humble Thread is at 621 W. Main St. in Cabot and online at Thehumblethread.com.

NATIVE SON WINS

DESIGN KUDOS

Handbag designer Christopher Belt has done Arkansas proud. The Sheridan native took home a record-breaking three honors at the 11th annual Independent Handbag Designer Awards in June in New York. The competition is open to emerging designers from throughout the world.

Now a New Yorker and a graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design, Belt plans to donate the Aerial bag and Amelia tote purse prototypes for display at Esse Purse Museum in Little Rock in conjunction with a special homecoming event this fall. For more information, visit Christopherbelt.nyc.

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High Profile on 07/16/2017

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