Four dresses that will be shown off on a Manhattan rooftop during New York Fashion Week made their debut in Kokomo on Friday.
Designer Chardonnay Rose Clark wanted to give her hometown the first look at her designs with a fashion show titled “Introducing Couture.” Four more dresses will be completed before her New York show, which is set for Sept. 10.
Clark explained the show doubled as a reintroduction to her brand, NO BiAS, which held its first fashion show in April last year and primarily featured streetwear.
The brand still strives for sustainability, she noted, and uses donated fabric that would otherwise go to landfills to create new clothes.
Before the show opened to more than a dozen visitors, they crowded around The Hobson’s upstairs hallway and browsed through silent auction items that included signed sports memorabilia, gift cards to local businesses and custom art from Sterling Clark, the designer’s father who creates the “Ntombinde: The Girl Who Loves Danger” comics that run on the Tribune’s Life & Style page on Fridays.
Past a set of double doors, VIP ticket holders were already getting a glimpse of the four dresses. Before long, the rest of the crowd was invited to join them. Clark greeted each guest as they walked through the doors.
Along the left wall, four models stood on stone platforms and held statuesque poses meant to imitate statues in an art gallery. Each of the dresses were made of repurposed materials that had either been donated or found.
The four dresses ranged in style. The first one visitors saw as they walked past to get a closer look was a silver, form-fitting gown. Clark later explained the fabric came from the inside of a window curtain.
The second dress, a red maxi dress with metal hoops, came from a box of fabric Clark was gifted.
The third and fourth dresses featured frilly white maxi skirts. One was coupled with a burgundy velvet top and the other with a laced navy blue denim top. Clark explained the skirts and laces on both dresses came from the wedding dress that belonged to one of her partners.
The designer said it was an incredible journey and exciting to repurpose the wedding dress — a garment that played an important role in her friend’s life — into new pieces of attire.
There are no set plans yet for the dresses after New York Fashion Week. If they’re sold, Clark said, the buyer would be fairly lucky since each dress is unreplicable.
Whatever happens to the dresses, the designer said she hoped the fabric would be donated to another sustainable fashion brand after the owner is finished with it.
Past the dresses, visitors shopped from racks of T-shirts and hoodies Clark designed. On the other side of the room, a few artists displayed work alongside Kimina Sarae, who designed and made jewelry to go with each dress.
Clark explained she set up the New York Fashion Week after applying to every show she could. The one that accepted her was the largest, and most intimidating, she applied to.
“It was like the world stopped and dropped three feet,” Clark said, remembering the feeling she had when she found out her work had been accepted.
She imagined a 6-year-old version of herself looking up and smiling at Friday’s show. She said she wouldn’t have been able to accomplish it without Meoodie Donovan, whom she met during a marketing and networking event.
Donovan said she heard Clark say she needed help sewing and wanted to help.
She double majored in fashion merchandising and IT in college. When the IT company she had been working for downsized, she took it as a sign to help Clark.
“I liked her enthusiasm, her sincerity, her authenticity. … It’s been great.” Donovan said of Clark. She later added, “Rose is amazing and she’s got great, creative ideas.”
There had been some stressful evenings rushing to complete the dresses on time for Friday’s show, Donovan said, but she assured Clark she never missed an opening curtain when she made costumes for her sons’ theater performances.
While Clark acknowledged the show took a lot of effort to organize, the designer said she didn’t have to put on a face and could act natural once the gala rolled around. If she did have to put on a face, she said, it wouldn’t be a NO BiAS show.
She encouraged Kokomo residents who discuss the importance of supporting art to support fashion.
“This kind of art makes people uncomfortable sometimes. I love that my art makes people uncomfortable sometimes,” Clark said, pointing out some of her streetwear features naked women and graffiti. “I’d rather feel something than nothing.”
A few hours into the gala, Clark walked toward the front of the room to address the crowd of more than 30 visitors.
“It’s amazing that a small, itty-bitty business, in an itty-bitty town, in an itty-bitty state that nobody ever even thinks of is making it all the way to New York to showcase sustainability like this,” Clark said. The audience cheered for her.
She reminded the audience everything in the main gallery room was from a small, Black-owned business.
“I really strive for diversity in everything that I do, and recyclability,” the designer said. “I care about the environment.”
Cracking a smile, she added, “I care about looking good all the time, I want you guys to look good all the time.”
The audience met her grin with a chuckle.
After the models gave a brief runway, zigzagging through the crowd, Clark thanked the audience for attending and shared some last minute thoughts on the dresses.
“These could all be in landfills right now, in the oceans, the dumpsters collecting bacteria, collecting waste,” Clark said. “But they’re on beautiful women tonight. They can be for the rest of their existence.”
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