Living the DREAM
showrooms, different modelling agencies.”
Avila is from the Benidorm area, in the province of Alicante in eastern Spain on the Mediterranean coast. She was accompanied by her parents and siblings. At home, she said, “I practise every day,” referring to her love of modelling.
“I’m studying modelling and to become an actress,” Avila said.
She walked the runway with models young and old, including one in a wheelchair, Tae McKenzie of Charlotte, North Carolina, and a young girl who also has Down syndrome. White’s 43 looks were shown like a rainbow with glimmering beaded embellishments on some in red, pink, gold, white, black and rose. Some pageant queens walked the runway, too, with a few in the audience, their sashes and crowns in place.
White, 25, thought of a rainbow to represent “women’s empowerment and beauty from the inside out”, she said.
“I wanted to show not just one type of girl is beautiful. I like to showcase all types of girls, from pageant girls to models in wheelchairs, models with Down syndrome, models who are 4 feet and told they can never be a model. They are my ‘it’ girl.”
This isn’t White’s first time showing at fashion week. Her first show was in September 2016, in a church.
“The pastor was mad because we came early and church was still going on and we were loud,” she laughed. “You have to start somewhere.”
As for Avila, White “loves giving girls opportunities to blossom and fulfil their dreams”.
How will she do that?
“The mission of my business is to change the world one stitch at a time, but I know I’m not going to do that just by making pretty dresses. It’s going to be the women who wear those pretty dresses,” White said. “People like Marian Avila and Tae McKenzie, who are breaking boundaries in the fashion industry.”
—AP