Living in Austin means never really having to get dressed up, and honestly never feeling a huge need to impress with one’s style. When’s the last time you actually felt pressured to dress a certain way? Austinites are used to having a freedom to wear what we want to wear, which usually means dressing pretty casually for both day and night time activities. But along with this creative freedom and care-free attitude, can also come laziness. Every now and then it’s exciting to have a reason to feel a little fancy and put some extra time and effort into our look. That’s what this past Saturday night was all about.
Austin Fashion Week kicked off officially at Brazos Hall this past weekend with its “Noir and Encore” fashion event which included not only a fashion show, but a seated 3 course feast. Attendees were given an all-black dress code, while in contrast, Austin’s top designers (and a few retailers) showed a collection of all-white looks. It was particularly intriguing to see what designer Gail Chovan who notoriously designs in all black, would do with a white palette. Apparently the “white challenge” inspired Gail so much that her full collection, which will show at the Awards on Saturday, has both black and white pieces in it.
Noir was a fantastic night of fashion, food, and fun (did I mention there was an open bar?) and even some charity thrown into the mix. All proceeds from the clothing designed for Noir went to the Arc of the Capital Area.
The People
Of course the room was filled with lots of friendly familiar faces of Austin fashion. Everyone came dressed for the occasion in all black (errr..except for those few awkward people who I guess didn’t get the memo?? I wanted to question these people, but I resisted.) Local designers Dawn and Priscilla were 2 of my favorites from the night. Dawn always looks amazing in her glamorous vintage looks and Priscilla was actually borrowing one of my dresses for the night. It might seem funny that a clothing designer who showed in the fashion show was wearing one of my personal dresses. But if you know Priscilla, then it shouldn’t come as a huge shock that this usually quirky and colorfully dressed gal wouldn’t have a whole lot of black in her current nomadic closet. I sneaked a peek at her collection yesterday that will show on Friday night and it is filled with tons of fun colors and prints (citrus fruit print suit, anyone?) Her show might be both literally and Rachel Zoe type of bananas.
And in case anyone else needs to borrow anything, I will now be running a “Rent Joanna’s closet” business on the side to more directly help keep Austin stylish.
designers Dawn Younger-Smith a.k.a. Boudoir Queen, Priscilla Barroso of Crowned Bird
Austin Fashion Week founder Matt Swinney with his wife Kara, and Erin Bennett
Makeup artist Kandy Glass, designer Anslee Connell, designer Megan Summerville
owners of Dandy’s Gentleman Store, Chris and Wendy Bykowski
Blackmail owner and designer Gail Chovan
CW Austin Star Taylor Ellison
designer Linda Asaf
13 year old designer Jessica Faith Marshall
me and the ladies of Mirror Mirror salon, showing off our fancy Noir nails
me rockin my Nipon dress from MOSS with some heels from Zara (thank you Anslee for snapping this photo of me!)
The Food
I might have been looking forward to the food just as much as, if not more than, the fashion. Chefs Shawn Cirkiel & Steven Cak of Olive & June, Parkside, and The Backspace put together a black and white inspired menu that consisted of some sort of goo that was stuck in a shooter that no one at my table understood how we were supposed to eat, some chicken that looked deceivingly like scallops and tasted like pretty much nothing, and a dessert that was sort of tasty but nothing special. I’m no professional food critic and I also ate a bag of Funyuns today, so I admittedly might not be the best judge, but I was left wanting more.
The Fashion
Cristina Facundo styled the show beautifully and the hair by Ron King and makeup by Rae Cosmetics pulled all the varying looks together to create a seamless and stylish aesthetic that included a romantic dark lip. Christi Craven of Lilly Lorraine had one of the more memorable dresses of the night due to its intricacy and texture, but all of the designs looked fabulous on the unfortunately poorly lit runway (us Austin fashion photographers always have to put up with the most pathetic lighting).
Kendra Scott
Crowned Bird
Teddies for Bettys
CIARLA
Linda Asaf
Ross Bennett
Stephen Moser
Rare Trends
Megan Summerville
Adrienne Yunger
Pearl Southern Couture
Sarah Eileen
Lilly Lorraine
After Noir, everyone moved upstairs for the “Encore” which included a hair and makeup show and of course, more booze. Stay tuned for photos from that portion of the Austin Fashion Week kick off!
Joanna Wilkinson
keep austin stylish