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Austin Fashion Week 2016

May 2nd, 2016

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Category: Events

Austin Fashion Week 2016

In it’s 8th year, Austin Fashion Week was held at the JW Marriott this year and sponsored by Chloe Wine Collection. Saturday evening was the close of the shows and they left all of us inspired to be a bit more fashionable. It’s “out of the everyday” to clearly put something together to present to the public as “fashionable”. Austin Fashion Week is quite light hearted and I didn’t get the sense that they took themselves too seriously. Texas fashion fun was the agenda as well as giving back to the Austin community.

Saturday evening started with Melissa Fleis, a runner up Project Runway Season 10 participant. She is well educated in fashion design and has studied under the likes of Simon Ungless and Alessandra Marchi of Italy. I love to go with initial words that pop in my head when I see a collection and the first words that I thought of was “everyday Thunderdome appropriate”. Basically, she made wearing fashion from that movie acceptable and street legal. Cotton cashmere, enzyme washed tercel and leather was layered for a chic casual aesthetic.

Next up was Michelle Lesniak. My initial word thought was Vintage 1970’s desperado with a pop of pom pom’s. I also thought she loved raiding her mom’s fabric scrap box. Low and behold Michelle is from Portland, a thrift store junkie and her family is into quilting so I was not off base.

Amanda Valentine is a Nashville native however her collection resembled the very chic Scottsdale, Arizona crowd. Gorgeous Aztec aesthetic and pueblo couture make a great collection.

The hit of the evening were the little munchkins who paraded down the runway in layers of embellished lace, satin, silk and velvet by Bentley + Lace. Think Alice in Wonderland puked lace fabric and threw her head back in screaming laughter while eating cake. My favorite where the little girls with huge lace cinnabons on the sides of their heads.

If you want to look chic at work without appealing to the cookie cutter black/white/grey/taupe crowd, you should check out Tinsley Radix Read To Wear Collection, sold online and in their newly opened store in Dallas, Texas. My favorite looks were the long shirt dresses and the added fabric on a basic coat. In the 80’s, bow blouses were a big deal and now they are back! Working 9 to 5 what a way to make a living … a look great doing it.

Everyone knows that the girls scouts are not known for their fashion but for those darn cookies. This Is Sloane may have made the girl scout uniform kinda chic. I need the mail dress. What is that? It’s a dress that has a letter with postage on it! I wasn’t a big fan of the unfinished fabric look with strings hanging everywhere … Seems kinds lazy. The most stunning piece was the parachute cape. Bravo!

A sharped dressed man is still classic and the sexiest look they can pull off. Ross Bennett presented the Boys of ATX in his custom suiting designs, intermingled with models wearing mens shirts with high heels. This was one of my favorite showcases. The first, second and third words that came to my mind were yummy, yummy and then yummy.

As Pee Wee Herman would say “well aren’t you special”. Well Isabella Rose Taylor is being that she has already shown her collection at NYFW. Never mind that she is super young and still at Parsons. Her collection was everyday uniform so I can see what Nordstrom’s picked it up. It’s youthful and definitely will help those who want to blend in do with wearing well designed clothing.

Cheers to fashion. Cheers to fashion in Austin.

To see the photos click photo or here.

pbp-8024

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