Arizona will once again be in the spotlight for fashion as Phoenix Fashion Week returns for its 11th year from Oct. 3-5 at Talking Stick Resort. More than 5,000 attendees from around the world will be on hand for a mix of runway shows, trunk sales, fashionable workshops, and hip after-parties.
The event, which is the leading fashion industry event in the Southwest, has a mission to “bridge national and international designers with retailers, boutiques, fashionistas, and top fashion media globally.”
Phoenix Fashion Week kicks off on Thursday, Oct. 3, with the Fashionably Pink Celebrity Fashion Show, benefiting the charity Don’t Be a Chump, Check for a Lump. Here, 25 breast cancer survivors will model stunning dresses provided by Glam Squad Couture. Each designer will design one outfit inspired by the color pink to be modeled on the runway.
Thursday night also includes Community Night, a runway show featuring 12 Arizona-based designers who each show two looks on the runway.
In all, there are approximately eight runway fashion shows each night of the event, featuring a total of nine established designers, 10 emerging designers and 10 accessory designers.
The established brands include Rocky Gathercole (from the Philippines), Yas Couture (from Kuwait), élevée lifestyle (from Los Angeles), ACONAV (from Phoenix, a Native American designer who just designed a gown for the red carpet at the Tony Awards and did a commissioned custom dress for Walt Disney World) and Christine Adar (from Chicago).
The business of fashion seminar series, Thursday, Friday and Saturday kicks off at 9 a.m. with fashion business workshops taught by industry experts that teach people how to launch their own beauty or fashion business.
Then from 5:30–10 p.m. the Style Villa is open. These shopping meccas, which include 12 pop-up shops by local lifestyle brands and retailers, are open to the public with no ticket needed.
Doors open at 7:45 p.m. for the nightly fashion shows, which begin around 8 p.m. The runways will feature Holiday 2019 and Spring 2020 collections from the mix of emerging and established designers from around the world.
Hip after-parties are held after the shows at various local venues.
Though Phoenix Fashion Week culminates in this weekend of shows and events, the program is year-long and includes a model boot camp, where the Top Model is announced during the runway shows, designer boot camp and more.
“At Phoenix Fashion Week we are celebrating emerging fashion talent, from designers to models to stylists,” says Executive Director Brian Hill. "I love to see people grow toward their dreams,” he says of Phoenix Fashion Week. “It starts over every year for me. A new group of fashionistas is going to be molded on how to succeed in this challenging industry. They had big dreams, and now they’re able to pursue them by focusing on the business side of their brand. It’s just really rewarding for me personally to see that happening, and to see it happen again and again.”
For more information or tickets, visit PhoenixFashionWeek.com.
