Like downtown Eugene itself, the “Sidewalk to Catwalk” runway show grows each year, showcasing new faces and businesses.
“It’s going to be at least 200 looks,” Grace McNabb says. McNabb, through her fashion event production company Silver Lining Productions, is co-organizing the event with the city. “This year a lot more people are involved.”
The fashion show, June 18 in the Hult Center lobby, will feature more than a dozen local designers and labels, one designer from Portland — Lucy Howard of DUBARD clothing — and nine lines from local shops, including Velvet Edge Boutique, Passionflower, St. Vincent de Paul and Kitsch-22.
Indie Om, a “mobile fashion boutique” that sells yoga and resale apparel from a vintage bus traveling up and down I-5, will also show.
“I am making seven one-piece bathing suits and three pairs of men’s swim trunks with tank tops,” says SEW Fresh designer Sierah Edwards, who graduated from Oregon State University’s apparel design program in 2013. Edwards says the swimsuits are simple in the front, with strappy, intricate detailing on the back — reimagining the women’s one-piece as anything but traditional and plain.
“The men’s pieces are kind of ’80s-inspired,” Edwards says. “I’m using Flintstones fabric.”
This will be the inaugural catwalk for the downtown home and gift shop Heritage Dry Goods.
“This is the first year we’ve had clothing,” owner Nicole Desch says. Heritage Dry Goods only sells American-made products, so all the looks on the runway are homegrown.
“We have a brand new T-shirt that we had a student at the UO design,” Desch says. The men’s design by Tyler Bell will be joined by T-shirts designed by two other UO students — Tyler Rogers and Serena Smith — screenprinted by Triangle Graphics.
Desch will also feature shirts by Wolf Child, the tee company by former Eugenean Sabrina Linn Jackson, who now lives in Portland. The models will walk with bags by Archival Clothing and Frost River as well as felted recycled-wool hats by Yellow108.
McNabb has planned a “beauty bar” on the second floor of the Hult where there will be massage, waxing, wellness and other demonstrations. Stretch Shapes, a local company that sells fabric trusses and screens, will provide large panels to frame the runway. UO digital arts instructor John Park will also use the panels for projections.
“The finale with projection mapping has pretty bitching visuals to close out the show,” McNabb says.
“Sidewalk to Catwalk: Downtown Fashion Show” runs 6:30 to 9 pm Thursday, June 18, in the Hult Center lobby; FREE. The city of Eugene also writes online: “Come early and also catch the sneak peak of our new performance art series, pARTy on the Plaza, at 5:30 pm.”