Ariela Martin Photo
Kylie Anderson models Mariely Pratts’s creation.
From rudimentary sketches to fitted dresses, models paraded unique designs to benefit one cause: New Haven’s homeless. The process to create one runway-ready dress is not as simple as it may appear, but through months of planning and preparation, fabric and pins were transformed into glamorous spectacles.
The occasion was the fourth annual “Project Style” fashion fundraiser for Liberty Community Services, a community on State Street for people living with HIV/AIDS, mental illness and addiction.
Twenty area designers with a range of expertise and experience contributed designs and work for the event. They all came up with pieces based on the theme “Spring Fantasy.”
McCarthy drew designs of the dresses to be copied and sold at the event.
The event drew 275 Liberty supporters to the Lawn Club for a silent auction and runway show Wednesday evening. It raised over $30,000 to benefit the homeless in New Haven.
“Every year I love watching it come together to see fashion and benefit come together for one cause, the homeless,” said Tracy Bonosconi, the fashion stylist of the event and owner of Tracy B Boutique.
The evening brought attention not only to a good cause, but the process of creating a runway-ready dress is not as simple as it may appear. Through months of planning and preparation, fabric and pins were transformed into glamorous spectacles.
(Click here and here to read more about previous Project Style events.
McCarthy and Bonosconi watch the final run-through before the event.
New Haven born Emmett McCarthy, the show’s curator and a New York designer, worked alongside Bonosconi, to guide the designers throughout the process leading up to the event. The designers went through an interview process, where they had the opportunity to meet with McCarthy and Bonosconi to demonstrate how their inspiration for their design fit the Spring Fantasy theme. Once they were accepted to contribute their work for the show, McCarthy contributed his fashion wisdom to making their design on paper become a reality.
Cara Ann Cama walks the runway in Ahsile Fearon’s creation.
The Project Style team developed the Spring Fantasy theme because “when you don’t have a home, it’s very difficult to look your best and feel your best. We wanted our theme to be based around happiness and joy and spring, and not about the ‘sad things’,” said McCarthy.
McCarthy gives tips to Fearon on the dress.
Ahsile Fearon, a student at Prince Tech High School in Hartford, found inspiration in the “Lady in Red”: “I was so excited that my dress is in the show. This is what I’ve always dreamed of doing, and to be working with Emmett and Tracy has been amazing.” Cara Ann Cama, Miss New Haven, walked the runway in Fearon’s creation.
McCarthy and Pratt analyze the mock-up dress.
Kylie Anderson, who had her debut modeling as her sisters nervously watched from the front row, modeled an iridescent orange fitted gown with a train. Mariely Pratts, designer of the dress, attends Sanford Brown College with an associates degree in fashion merchandising and design. “I was inspired by the theme of tiger lilies, both in their color and shape,” she said. “I’m so excited the way my dress turned out.”
McCarthy and Pratt analyze the train of the mock-up dress.
Cama and Fearon walk the runway.
Anderson and Pratt wait before walking the runway.
Ariela Martin, a student at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, is an Independent contributing reporter.