Opening Show at Kings Plaza

Brooklyn has long-arrived in the areas of art, food, music, film and interior design. It’s now time for fashion designers to get more recognition at Fashion Week Brooklyn. #FWBK

Here are pictures from the 10th Anniversary Fashion Week Brooklyn events I attended last week, beginning with the opening fashion show at Kings Plaza Mall in the Marine Park section at the very-very-very end of Flatbush Avenue, followed by events in DUMBO and in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Yes, it is time for Brooklyn to be on the cutting edge of fashion!

At Kings Plaza

In 2006, fashion industry veteran and the event’s founder, Rick Davy, had a vision of what Brooklyn was fast-becoming, and he decided that the borough needed its own fashion show.

Vino Supraja Show in DUMBO venue

Ten years later last week, a diverse collection of designers were highlighted from Alaska, India, Germany, Korea, the Middle East, Mexico as well as the United States. Designers making their debut included: Reviled, Olga Gergel, Shaman Furs, Vino Supraja, THABTO, s a k u new york, LEEOH L, Studio SF, Saba Pervaiz, and Paulo Succar. How thrilling that varied pieces such as those from Alaska-based Shaman Furs and Vino Supraja from India to American Eagle and Forever 21 were featured in related shows in the same week!

As for locales for the fashion shows. it was good to see different parts of Brooklyn included, areas you’d never think to see major shows. The trends in fashion varied by each fashion venue. The Kings Plaza show allowed the department stores to pull out trendy designs and outfits for children, the average person of 5′ 4″ and the full figured. Models at the shows were a very impressive colorful array of all shapes and sizes.

ReviledNYC (daughter far right)

East of Hollywood’s Studio E, the Bedford-Stuyvesant venue, was also far off the beaten path from DUMBO —  did it work for this event? What a hidden location! I remember that property being an abandoned warehouse for many years —maybe more than two decades —  but Fashion Week Brooklyn and its show breathed life into the space. The renovated sound stage hosted something that you would expect to see when attending a show in Manhattan, in SoHo. It was very exciting for the Brooklyn fashion world to have three different shows at Kings Plaza, DUMBO and then Bed-Stuy: a beautiful web that captured the beauty, diversity and versatility of this creative borough as well as the designers, models and audience.

My daughter with Samantha C, from “Project Runway Junior”

Meeting Special Guest “Project Runway Junior” Finalist Samantha C at the opening event showed me that the next generation is talented, enthusiastic and ready to take the reins.

with Deloris Henderson, model, photographer, college friend.

This event also enabled me to be reunited with Deloris Henderson, a friend from my college days who also was a model. She is now a respected fashion photographer with an expert eye for talent. That reunion, and seeing my daughter turn heads on the runway for designers Reviled and Shaman Furs, were just cherries on top of the cake that is Fashion Week Brooklyn. What an impressive experience. Look out, Manhattan!