Austin Fashion Week 2011: Kick-Off Party Summary

above: me and Joanna. below: me and Tim's view of the stage from our seats.

Team Adored Austin should need no introduction to the blogosphere...Indiana and Rachel.

The dress on the presenter is like cotton candy and I love it.

The set up of the runway. The entire runway was black studded leather since the kickoff show was a rocker/biker theme. I forgot to take pics of my seats (thanks Kristen!) but they were right where the lady in black and white in the front of the stage was standing.



my heart swooned when these kids came on stage... SO ADORABLE

and then Betsey Johnson's collection was shown in the first half of the show while the local collections were still being prepped. I want that teal poufy skirt! Also, watching a Betsey Johnson collection from the front row was surreal.





After a short intermission with a band playing, the first mash-up looks (a randomly paired team of accessories/clothing/shoes/makeup/jewelry/hair people putting together 1 cohesive look) came on the runway...

I was so proud of my friend Anslee when this teal number came down the runway. She designs an amazing plus-sized line and has repeated insisted on using a true plus sized model. I also LOVE that peacock feathered tote.


this dress is one of my favorites from the mashup teams...


Wouldn't be my blog without a few pictures of shoes. I'm digging this feathered concoction...

a "fabulous" toolbox. love.

I want her beehive hair!

once again, balloons + kids = win.

full body shot available on the facebook album, but I love how this model actually walked en pointe in ballet shoes the entire time on the runway. I love details like that...

the boots!!

Professional shots by my friend Waytao Shing. More of his shots are uploaded on to a facebook album HERE. Waytao does a lot of amazing concert photography from Slash to Taylor Swift and was kind enough to show me how to shoot in manual settings and give me other little photography helpful tidbits during the show intermission. Check his website out!

(Excuse my poor excuse for a fashion show outfit but even 1 hour before the show we were still driving back from the countryside so I had 20 minutes to get ready...and then I also decided what's the point since the models are still going to look 10x as amazing as I would ever look so I put on this Asos clearance dress I got from a while back and my favorite pair of pumps)
I'm writing this blog post at 5:30 in the morning because it ended up taking me 4-5 hours to edit/upload the photos so excuse my incoherence. I figured since I'm leaving for NYC this week I better edit the photos now or they will be extremely backlogged.  I'll be brief about the show:

The good: I liked the venue and how it was set up, the fact that the models came in all shapes, ethnicity, gender, and age groups. I liked that the show was indoors instead of outdoors like last year. I liked the hair/makeup/clothes. I also liked the use of accessories and random details that made the outfits. Also if you guys want to see all of the photoshoots with the mashup teams, want more information on the individual designers or want to vote for your favorite look, HERE's the link. Austin Fashion Week is definitely heading in the right direction without losing the quirky Austin flavor. There's been so much improvement and growth in the fashion scene from year to year (this is the third year for AFW) that it's amazing how professional and well-executed this event was.
The "bad": there's not much to complain about so I'm being extremely knit-picky. Some of the models could use a need to practice their walk a bit more...a lot of them look mortified to be walking in such high heels. The individual designers' instead of just the team's name could be listed on the slideshow screen so there's no confusion about whose design each look was. Finally, I think next time the aisle and media platform should be checked for random people trying to get a better view because there were people sitting in front of the front row seats and people with camera phones on the media riser.
I'm sad to only attend one event from AFW this year due to my trip to NY since it looks like the shows are going to be pretty kick-ass. To all my Austin friends reading this...break a leg!
PS. For a funnier (and more thorough) recap of the show, head over to Joanna's blog post about the event!

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