Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Enriching the cultural landscape
Fashion and beauty fostering diversity
Northwest Arkansas Spring Fashion Week: Return to Form sponsors and friends joined INTERFORM for an appreciation reception on March 27 at Ledger. Held on the eve of the eighth annual event, guests were treated to a preview of planned events and designer and INTERFORM board member Korto Momolu introduced guests to fellow “Project Runway” alumni with slated shows — Mondo Guerra, Viktor Luna, Prajjé Oscar and Brittany Allen.
INTERFORM is a nonprofit organization “dedicated to enriching the arts and cultural landscape. Through professional development education and programming, INTERFORM supports the creative community, fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in all its endeavors,” according to a news release.
“Fashion is not only a commodity. Fashion is creativity, fashion is industry, fashion is art but most importantly, at INTERFORM fashion is community,” Robin Atkinson, INTERFORM CEO, told fashion week funders.
This year’s fashion forum, the largest to date, featured runway shows by nearly 40 designers — most of them local or regional — with more than 150 models. Ticket sales brought in more than $55,000, “which goes right back into our Emerge program, free community sewing classes and ASSEMBLY” and other programs, Rochelle Bailey, communications and evaluations manager tells me.
Emerge provides mentorships, workshops and other opportunities to help local designers develop in the field. ASSEMBLY launched in 2023 as “America’s first ever art and fashion biennial. It was art meets fashion and that’s really
what we think of here at INTERFORM,” Atkinson said. The next Assembly is set for June 2025.
Fashion festivities also included a panel discussion focusing on “cultural expression in fashion, exploring cultural heritage and addressing challenges in implementation in fashion.” Basana Chhetri, INTERFORM vice president of programming and community engagement, served as moderator of the conversation that brought together Srividya V en kat asu bra man ya, Ra-Ve Cultural Foundation executive director; Momolu; Zipporah Barasa, University of Arkansas; and Rulli Torres, apparel and fashion designer.
“The gap between the people who make fashion and the people who wear fashion is so big,” Atkinson told reception guests. “As I dream about what INTERFORM gets to become over the next 10 years, I think ‘Let’s be an organization that just breaks that barrier, let’s just destroy that gap,’ through the work Basana (Chhetri) is doing teaching people to sew, through the work that Show is doing providing opportunities for people to showcase their creativity and create a market for this stuff. Let’s let people with creative vision get in front of a market. Let’s inspire people who have the budgets to spend money on clothing, to spend it on creatives from their community. Let’s spend it on American-made apparel.”
INTERFORM’s partnership with Walmart Beauty and Walmart Fashion, Platinum sponsors, to present Fashion Week has evolved and been a “game-changer” making for a “more ambitious and frankly more relevant” production, Atkinson tells me.
Among those joining Walmart as sponsors were Olly, Flywheel, Kaleidoscope, Darling Textured Hair Extensions, Creme of Nature, Palmer’s, As I Am, Essie, Garnier, Vitafusion, L’Oreal Paris, got2b, Conair, Scunci, Pantene, My Black is Beautiful, NOU Next of Us and Aussie.
Columnist Carin Schoppmeyer can be reached by email at cschoppmeyer@nwaonline.com.