Students at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College Experience fashion legacy and mentorship with FLAIR 2017.
Models from the Ebony Fashion Fair reunited last week to celebrate fashion and charity with the Fashion Legacy Association for Industry Recognition (FLAIR, Inc.). FLAIR 2017 was a five-day event with mentorship days, fashion shows, brunch and more.
The main event was a fashion show and ceremony on Saturday night at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College. KJLH’s Adai Lamar hosted the event and was in great company, with celebs like Richard Roundtree, a.k.a. Shaft, who walked the runway along with actress Dawnn Lewis and supermodel Pat Cleveland. Roundtree and Cleveland were also two of the honorees of the night, along with some of the most notable designers and fashion experts in Ebony fashion.
“I was so excited to see all of the different fashion and icons who were here that paved the way. To see how gorgeous they still look, it was absolutely fabulous,” said Lamar. “I love that our people came together tonight for a wonderful cause, children, and mentorship. And they brought their best, our young people with FLAIR shined and shined and shined.”
Along with showing appreciation for the fashion legends, FLAIR 2017 brought attention to the youth. Some of the fashion students of Los Angeles Trade-Technical College had their projects featured in the fashion show. There were also $1000 dollar scholarships given out.
“Tonight was amazing, it was everything that I expected. I knew that there would be grandeur; all the fashion was going to be incredible. I loved it all,” said Aaron Luxor, one of the scholarship recipients. “We had a mentorship program yesterday and all of the scholarship winners, we got to meet Pat Cleveland and Audrey Schultz and just meet everyone. The whole event was spectacular.”
Eunice Walker Johnson of Johnson Publishing created Ebony Fashion Fair in 1958 (the company also publishes Ebony and Jet magazines). She wanted to create something where people of color could excel in the fashion industry and it took off for 51 years. Faye Moseley, was one of the top models of the Ebony Fashion Fair, and in 2012 she created FLAIR as a vehicle for herself, and other models and fashion experts to give back to fashion students of color.
“One of the inspirations behind me starting FLAIR was my son graduating from FIDM and telling me that in his experience they never talked about African American designers. Eunice Johnson gave so much to the fashion industry with the Ebony Fashion Fair and I want to make sure that we leave a legacy,” said Moseley. “We are also big on mentorship. This year we had 25 fashion students participating in our FLAIR mentorship program. We want to give them exposure in the same way that the Ebony Fashion Fair gave us exposure.”
The sponsors of FLAIR 2017 were OSI, AHF, U.S. Bank, Sony PlayStation, Dr. Fred Parrot, Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills, Xerox, Union Bank, LATTC and Onlave Signature Productions. FLAIR has events all over the country and is set to come back to Los Angeles in 2019. For more information on the nonprofit organization, visit www.flairinc.org.
