reFASHIONED heads back to the stage

The Clarion Content is thrilled to report that reFASHIONED is coming back to the stage at MotorCo this Friday night. (*Full disclosure the Clarion Content is a reFASHIONED sponsor.) reFASHIONED was a huge hit in July 2012, packing the house and drawing rave reviews in local media.

The Clarion Content delights in the success of reFASHIONED for reasons that speak highly of our fair city. reFASHIONED is led, organized, and driven by an amazing Durhamanian, Kala Wolfe. Last year, yours truly, the editor, had an opportunity to work along side Wolfe as she coordinated designers, models, hairdressers, photographers, stagehands, lighting technicians, dj’s, mc’s, carpenters and more. It was a pleasure to help it come off in the manner it did. Better yet that so many of the heads and hands pulling it together were part of our intimate Durham network.¹

The runway awaits, photo by Jessica Arden Photography 

However, it is deeper than how reFASHIONED is run and brought off by a great group of local citizens. It is what those folks and reFASHIONED stand for. In conversations after last year’s show with Wolfe, River Takada-Capel, owner and designer of the River Basin Outfitters, and Gabe Eng-Goetz, owner and designer of Runaway Clothes, it became clear this was about way more than a simple display of fashion.

It was already evident on some levels. Durham does not demand that its models be skinny seventeen year-old waifs. Bodies of all shapes, sizes, genders and races were on display. Tattoos were not air-brushed out of the show, they were proudly propped.²

photo by BWPW Photography

The ethic reFASHIONED is built around according to Wolfe, Takada-Capel, and Eng-Goetz is rooted in the economics of fashion. The message is fashion does not have to exclusive or expensive to be awesome or the height of style. Fashion is not a privilege retained by the elites who can afford haute couture alone. Durham stands as an example, much like we do for the self-evident benefits of diversity. Fashion can be upcycled, recycled, reworked, and changed.

The Clarion Content’s own Cady Childs spent hours sewing and re-crafting fashion into her First Edition line, which was one of the hits of last year’s the show. She is returning with a new First Edition line this year.

First Edition, photo by Jessica Arden Photography

Similarly, Takada-Capel who’s reworked fashions were one of last year’s crowd pleasers, leads workshops through her artist collective, the Gypsy Witch, to teach other folks, how to do-it-yourself. They are especially popular with the trendiest of the Millennials, fitting right in with the maker movement so present in this generation. The Clarion Content has met more than one young woman who raved about what they learned to do their old denim shorts through the Gypsy Witch.

Similarly Eng-Goetz, a classically trained painter and Syracuse Fine Arts graduate, turned to fashion in an effort to make his art more affordable for his audience. (Read a Clarion Content profile of Eng-Goetz here.)

Runaway Clothes photo by Jessica Arden Photography

This kind of upcycled fashion captures so many meta-themes about use, re-use, and waste. One of the Clarion Content’s new faves in the mass culture, Mackelmore, talks about much the same thing in his hit song, “Thrift Shop.” $50 for a Gucci t-shirt or ninety-nine cents from the thrift shop?

Now you won’t be able to get bargains at quite those prices Friday night at the market after the reFASHIONED show, remember these are handmade garments from professional designers. Last year some folks swept up by the start of the dance party breaking out where the runways had been moments before missed out on the market in the Garage bar of MotorCo. Don’t let that happen to you this year.

Enjoy the show. Purchase some fashion. Come back and chill at the dance party.

Clarion Content fave, The Real Laww, will be MC’ing the show.

Doors will open at 6:30 PM. Show will begin at 7:30 PM.

Organizer Kala Wolfe, photo by Jessica Arden Photography

Notes

¹At the end of the show runways have to be moved to the clear the floor for the dance party. You will never guess who grabbed the other end of the runway with your editor last year. Hint here.

²Includes Wolfe’s own tattoos.