By Kristina Rosen
Dress for Success’ Recycle the Runway, Lexington’s signature charitable fashion show, returns for a fourth year and continues to challenge local designers to do their best work with some of the worst materials.
“Recycle the Runway” is back at The Grand Reserve on Tuesday, Sept. 20. The annual fundraiser turned fashion show gives local designers the opportunity to create a runway-ready outfit from a bag of unwearable garments.
The annual event invites the community to enjoy a one of a kind fashion show, luncheon and silent auction while supporting the clients of Dress for Success Lexington.
While “Recycle the Runway” benefits Dress for Success Lexington, it also benefits both professional and amateur designers who want to display their talents. Although it’s too late to become a designer for this year’s fashion show, there are still several ways to be involved whether it’s as a sponsor, volunteer or attendee.
Recycle the Runway features 12 local designers with half of the designers returning from previous years and the other six participating for the first time. Each designer was given a garbage bag of unusable clothing and less than eight weeks to create an outfit solely from what’s provided in the bag.
The designers for this year’s show include Brent Brashear, Nakiya Brewer, Trisha Dailey, Krista Druen, Lauren English, Joanna Haberman, Jerielle Hanlon, Amanda Hudgins, Samantha Jean Moore, Esther Simonds, Chainey Turner, and Lisa Parker Woods. The winning designer will receive a cash prize along with a photo shoot from CJ Cruz Photography.
During the fashion show, two special clients will have the chance to walk the runway to share their success stories and the impact Dress for Success Lexington has made on their lives.
All of the proceeds from the event go directly toward supporting Dress for Success Lexington’s mission to empower women.
Since its doors opened in October 2013, Dress for Success Lexington has served over 400 women throughout the community.
Although their main purpose is to provide women with the clothes to be successful, they support these women in every aspect of their career – from the beginning phase of job searching to the final phase of sending a client off for an interview, Dress for Success Lexington continues to encourage women and provide them with the tools they need to be successful.
“Recycle the Runway” continues to be the signature fundraiser for Dress for Success year after year. There is something entertaining and exciting about displaying wearable art. Seeing the way designers bring a new life to unsuitable clothing goes to show that anyone can create something beautiful if given the skills and opportunity to do so.
Recycle the Runway will be held Tuesday, Sept. 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at The Grand Reserve, Lexington. For more information, go to lexington.dressforsuccess.org
This article also appears on page 8 of the September 2016 printed edition of the Hamburg Journal. For more Hamburg area news, subscribe to the Hamburg Journal weekly digital newsletter.
