After taking a hiatus on last year’s in-person runway show and doing it in film format at the Boulevard Drive-In, the West 18th Street Fashion Show returns with an in-person event this Saturday, June 12, with the theme “Summer Tableau,” drawing inspiration from Mardi Gras house floats in New Orleans, complete with musical performances.
Head up by senior artistic director Peregrine Honig (who also owns Birdies, a lingerie shop on 18th Street), the 21st annual event will be hosted on the eponymous street in a new, unique way. To keep the experience lively yet safe, the runway show has transformed into a walkthrough experience on the historic West 18th Street in the Crossroads.
“We wanted to come up with something that was really high quality, and inclusive and interactive, that was also safe. So I contacted Jay Tomlinson of Helix [Architecutre + Design],” Honig says. “We started working with more architectural teams in city and then construction companies, and everyone got on board. We have seven collections and eight designers.”
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The walkthrough show will host seven tableaus, or moveable stages, with features from the West 18th Street partnership with Kansas City Museum and Kansas City Art Institute. Each designer will have their own stage in which they have been designed in unison with a local architect. The curators and designers featured include Honig’s shop Birdies, Cosmosphere, No Woe Designs, Beautiful Dissociation, Bound to Nothing, Renee’ Larouge, Cult of Polka and 3Minc. Musical performers include Texas-based drummer Nikki Glaspie, who used to drum for Beyonce, and the show’s musical director, artist Calvin Arsenia.
Architects participating in the show are BNIM, Helix, Gould Evans, Dake Wells, Pendulum, Hufft and Draw.
One element of the show that Honig is particularly excited about?
“Midtown Signs is creating something for [designer] Renee’ Larouge that is so powerful, and so timely,” she says.
There will be two shows offered in sixty-minute increments. Limited tickets are available—find them here.
