Inside Couture

The Anatomy of Dayton Fashion Week: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (Part 1)

August 3, 2012 By Dayton937 Leave a Comment

Lawd a mercy…where do I even start?? When I first heard that someone was trying to bring a Fashion Week to Dayton in September of 2011, I immediately got excited and went to work on trying to find out who this Junda Morris-Kennedy person was, I called, I wrote, I googled, I Facebooked, pretty much I stalked her until she finally responded!! I offered my assistance thinking that this Dayton Fashion Week thing was just going to be a cute little fashion show—BOY WAS I WRONG because This “Dayton Fashion Week Thing” turned out to be an International Fashion Spectacular that can only be summed up into three categories: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly…of course there was more Good than anything else.(que Ennio Morricone please)

The Good

The Friendships: Excuse me while I get a little teary eye’d and sappy but in the course of the past 10 months I had the opportunity to meet some of the most wonderful people and even better we became more than friends we became a family.

To the models, I want you to know how much I love and respect each and every one of you! As a former model myself, I set out to do for all of you the things that I wish I had accomplished in my career! Modeling isn’t an easy career to break into and all too often your hard work, passion, and dedication are dismissed and go unappreciated because you are “just a blank slate” and I want you to know that you are more than that. From the very first calls that we made to you after the casting calls and hearing your excitement and even tears of joy made me feel like a Fairy Godmother making a dream come true. And every event thereafter you went out and represented Dayton Fashion Week and let the whole world know that we had officially arrived on the Fashion Scene.

To the designers, WOW is all that I know to say!! Actually Wow and Thank You! It wasn’t an easy process finding designers to be a part of the first year of Dayton Fashion Week. I remember sitting at Junda’s house going over plans for the casting call and being really worried about the lack of commitments that we had from designers and doubting whether or not we could go on as planned with DFW. But in true DFW style we continued to reach out and slowly but surely you all answered the call, stepping out on Faith and risking your names and reputations to be a part of this Inaugural event. To say that I was blown away by your presentations throughout the week would be the understatement of the century! Your drive and push to make this event the success that it was will never be forgotten. I’ll be hitting some of you up soon for my custom orders!!

To the Photography team, Lamar Pacely, Robert Coyle, Pete Bradow, Krissy Mills, Cj Kim, and Cliff Fennell, I don’t know very many if any photographers let alone photographers as talented as you all are, who are willing to give up so much of their time voluntarily. You rose to the occasion with each phone call and yes even the last minute cover shoot calls!! If a picture tells a thousand words then your efforts made it a thousand and one!

To the Hair and Makeup Team— Great job Angelica Ross DFW’s Creative Director of Cosmetics, Elite Hair Academy, Stacia McVey, and The Hair Gallery. McKinnley Pierre of Inside Couture said it best, “Dayton Fashion Week’s Hair and Makeup team was better than any such teams that I’ve seen in Miami Fashion Week, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and L.A. Fashion Week, so my hat’s off to them.” What more can I say?

To Maha Kashani—thank you so much for welcoming me to your hood!! lol From the very moment that I contacted you about DFW. You jumped on board and worked your butt off to make sure that this event was a success. You are Dayton, you are the bomb, you are the best, you are amazing, you are fabulous, and all of the positive adjectives that you can name but most importantly you are my friend. Without you and your work there wouldn’t be a Dayton Fashion Week.

To Junda Morris-Kennedy—We did it!! This was not an easy journey, we climbed up the rough side of the mountain together and I’m honored to call you more than a friend you are my sister. We put in countless hours in planning, we worked together, cried together, we even disagreed a couple of times, and when push came to shove…we always had each others back and like real sisters we toughed it out, stepped out on faith, kept God first, and kept on climbing to the top of that mountain. Thank you so much for taking me under your wing and teaching me another side of the industry, for believing in me, and allowing me to be a part of a positive event for the city I love! I love you from the bottom of my heart.

The Bad

In the days and weeks leading up to Dayton Fashion Week we were rocked by a series of tragedies that shook us to the core. Junda suffered the loss of several family members back to back and 6 days before the Kickoff to Dayton Fashion Week on July 18 at the age of 37, Junda suffered a stroke. I was thrown into the leadership position and was faced with answering a challenging question…Will DFW continue? Not knowing all of the details of the business end of things, I called a last minute emergency meeting that was opened with prayer led by DFW Event Manager Cindy Gaboury and the number of people that showed up and the outpouring of support I received gave me the strength to go on and reaffirmed that cancellation WAS NOT AN OPTION!!

On Friday July 20, DFW’s Executive Producer and MTV’s Made Coach Kyle Haggerty, called his best friend to pick him up to take him to the airport to fly into Dayton and help with Dayton Fashion Week’s preparations. The weather was bad that day and his friend never arrived because he had been killed in a car accident on his way to pick up Kyle leaving him completely devastated and cancelling his trip to be a aprt of DFW.

On Sunday July 22, our Director of Public Relations Tamieka Kent had to step down from her DFW duties when she received a phone call requiring her to leave town to be at her mother’s side who had emergency open heart surgery.

The Ugly

I’ll keep this short,in the days leading up to DFW and when Dayton Fashion Week was struggling to survive after being rocked by back to back to back tragedies there were attempts made to kick us when we were down by those who we bent over backwards for the most to help and accommodate. Did I mention those were FAILED ATTEMPTS??

Back To The Good

Surely you didn’t think that I was going to let the ugly outshine the good right? As McKinnely Pierre the Executive Producer of Inside Couture told me when he called to check on me the other day. “Don’t let a couple of barking dogs steal your joy, especially when you have hundreds of silent ones standing behind you who have your back”. This is only the beginning and you know my motto Dayton Fashion Week #ItJustKeepsGettinBetter 2013 here we come!! News Flash WE ALREADY HAVE DESIGNERS FROM BRAZIL, LONDON, SOUTH AFRICA, INDIA, JAMAICA, AND YES DAYTON GETTING READY FOR 2013

Stay tuned for Part 2 and be sure to check out our Facebook Page to see all of the wonderful images captured by Dayton Fashion Weeks Photographers at Facebook.com/daytonfashion.

Win a Chance to Walk in Dayton Fashion Week at the Dayton Dutch Lions Game July 18

July 16, 2012 By Dayton937 Leave a Comment

Models lined up outside in the cold and rain for Dayton Fashion Weeks Casting Call

Did you miss out on your opportunity to be seen during one of Dayton Fashion Weeks casting calls? Were you not lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to be scouted while grocery shopping like DFW models Jaylin Snider and Maoly Ricardo? Well, Dayton Fashion Week and the Dayton Dutch Lions F.C. Soccer team are giving you one more opportunity to strut your stuff before a panel of DFW Scouts, Leo The Lion, and oh yeah hundreds of fans in attendance cheering on the Dutch Lions Men’s Soccer team during half-time on Wednesday July 18, 2012. The game starts at 7:30pm at Miami Valley South Stadium located at 3737 Upper Bellbrook Rd., Bellbrook, OH, 45305.

The Inaugural Dayton Fashion Week has taken the Fashion World by storm, named a “Must See” Fashion event of the year by London Based fashion magazine F-Politique, and will feature international, national, and local designers, models, and media. Dayton Fashion Week kicks off on Tuesday July 24 and runs thru Saturday July 28. DFW models are receiving once in a lifetime opportunities including taking part in seminars conducted by Executive Producer McKinley Pierre of Miami based television show Inside Couture and Celebrity photographer Rich Jackson who discovered Jessica Sutta of the Pussycat Dolls, they are receiving Runway lessons by MTV’s Made Coach Kyle Haggerty who is also the Executive Producer of Dayton Fashion Week. Dayton Fashion Week models have been featured in Fashion-Faces Magazine out of Phoenix, AZ, and this just in DFW models will be featured in Europe’s Fashion & Styles Magazine just to name a few.

The Dayton Dutch Lions and their Orange Legion have been taking the USL by storm and on July 20-21, former Dutch National Player Bryan Roy will be in town conducting a Skills Clinic for kids. The Dutch Lions will be raffling off tickets to each of Dayton Fashion Weeks events during the game on July 18, including the Fashion For A Cause Local Celebrity Fashion Show featuring both the Dutch Lions Men’s and Women’s Teams and Nixon Dias #4 Defender and one of the top DJ’s in the Netherlands will be mixing it up on the 1’s and 2’s for the event as well; proceeds from the raffle will be given to a charity of the Dayton Dutch Lions choice!! For ticket information for Wednesday’s game please visit the Dayton Dutch Lions website at http://www.daytondutchlionsfc.com and “Like” them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/DaytonDutchLionsFC . For more information on Dayton Fashion Week please visit http://www.daytonfashionweek.com and “Like” their page at http://www.facebook.com/daytonfashion.

Inside Couture – Looking for hosts to cover Dayton Fashion Week

April 4, 2012 By Dayton937 Leave a Comment

On Saturday April 7, 2012 from 10a-1p Miami FL and the Miami Valley will be partnering up when Dayton Fashion Week holds a casting call looking for four hosts to cover DFW for Miami, FL based fashion series Inside Couture—the casting call will be held at Sun Watch Indian Village located at 2301 W. River Rd, Dayton, OH 45418. You will need to bring a recent head and full body shot, with your name, phone number, and email address the back.

When I first heard that Inside Couture would be coming to cover Dayton Fashion Week and would need four hosts, I immediately grabbed one of those spots—when you are the Director of Operations you can do things like that! However, as I started to learn the ins and outs of my position I began to question whether or not I would have the time to run around doing interviews for Inside Couture AND make sure that everything is in order and running smoothly during Dayton Fashion Week. A question that was answered this past Saturday at our Pre Launch Soirée which was a HUGE SUCCESS, everyone really enjoyed themselves and we reached capacity—but at the same time, I found myself running around like a chicken with its head cut off and that was just a one day event that lasted a couple of hours. So with that being said I made the decision to give up my spot as a host and to focus on making sure DFW is a success. To see more photo’s from the Pre Launch please “Like” our page.

Dayton Fashion Week's Pre Launch Soiree

Junda (The Founder of DFW) first introduced me to McKinley Pierre, the owner and Executive Producer of Inside Couture a couple of months ago and he has been a strong supporter of DFW and the go to person for both Junda and I for advice on how to handle the stress and pressure that comes along with planning an event of this magnitude. We find ourselves calling him almost on a weekly basis and the conversations normally last a couple of hours. So when I called McKinley this week, he was out on his boat fishing but he made the time for a quick interview to introduce himself and his show to the people of Dayton, OH and we talked about a little surprise for a couple of the host selected from our casting call this Saturday.

Dayton Fashion Week: Can you introduce yourself and your show to the people from Dayton, OH?

McKinley Pierre: Hello, my name is McKinley Pierre and I’m one of the owners for Inside Couture, and I’m the Executive Producer, and basically our show Inside Couture is about fashion– started on the concept of me and my friends who are in the business but you never hear about the people behind the scenes. The stylist, hair and makeup artist, designers the models, the PR– So we are bringing the people from the back to the front!

DFW: What are you looking for in a host for Inside Couture?

MP: What I wanted to do with the show is give people the opportunities who ordinarily wouldn’t have the chance and introduce them to the fashion world, so that they can learn the behind the scenes happenings. I want them to learn how to act, how to present themselves, and better themselves because it might introduce them to other things, they might become an assistant, or get into production and etc–it’s all about having fun with it.

Basically, I want somebody excited to be there, somebody who likes to have fun, and somebody who commands attention—yet knows how to talk to people. You don’t have to have experience but I want you to know how to bring it!

DFW: Had you ever heard of Dayton, Ohio before we had Dayton Fashion Week?

MP: Oh I definitely have heard of Dayton, OH–everyone has heard of Dayton, OH but not in the Fashion World. When Junda called me and said that she was thinking about putting together a Fashion Week in Dayton, honestly I started to laugh because when you think fashion it’s in Europe, Miami, New York, and L.A. and I didn’t think there was fashion in Dayton, OH!! So, I told her if you’re serious about it I will help you do whatever it is you’re wanting to do in Dayton—you can use our show to promote DFW because we have the big names from Roberto Cavali, Custo Barcelona, Nicole Miller, photographer Mike Ruiz who shot the Beckhams and the Kardashians, and anyone that you can think of in the Industry, we have the stylist James Santiago from Sex and The City and Burn Notice, we have access to all of the behind the scenes happenings in the fashion industry.

Editor and Chief of Elle Magazine - Robbie Myers talks to Inside Couture about the first Elle Spa in the world. Photo by Inside Couture

DFW: So what are you looking forward to the most with Dayton Fashion week?

MP: Aside from the great fishing I hear Dayton has, I want to bring a couple of the hosts that you selected down to Miami and let them do some interviews here in South Beach, so we are going to work some things out for that too! I want to bring you guys down here to have some fun, get some experience and you never know where this could go and what other opportunities that this might lead to, you never know who’s going to see you, and you never know who’s watching!

We had Miami Fashion Week here a couple of weeks ago and I actually had the chance to meet a couple of hair stylist and makeup artist from Dayton and they were so excited that they were finally having something right there in their own back yard! So I look forward to seeing the people in Dayton having fun if you can’t have fun don’t even show up!

DFW: What makes a great Fashion Week?

MP: Fashion Weeks are only as good as your models! if you have a good model they’ll make a trash bag look good! It’s the model, it’s the hair, it’s the makeup, a lot of people don’t realize that it takes a whole team to make somebody up, it’s not just one person. It’s the people behind the scenes that determine the success of a show–they’re the ones that are running everything.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u2yaslZUMqY’]

DFW: You have been getting bombarded with emails from people in Dayton who have questions about how to prepare for Saturday, what advice to do you have for the people coming out to the audition?

MP: Oh yeah, we’ve had a lot of people contact us via our Inside Couture website, they’ve been sending their reels, they’re trying to get a head start on the competition. In any type of business you have to hustle and have a step up on people. So show up, act like you want to do something and dress the part. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE SKINNY TO BE A HOST FOR INSIDE COUTURE!!! We want to see diversity, we want somebody who knows how to talk and have fun. A lot of people want to exclude people for certain things and people sit at home wanting to do this but they don’t think that they’ll be chosen, how will you know if you don’t get off of the couch and try?

Don’t come in sounding like a Newscaster, we don’t want that, we don’t like that. Don’t come in acting like you know everything, if you know everything, I’m not going to be able to work with you because if you know everything, you can’t grow.

I look at it like this—you either got it or you don’t! Don’t be fake people can see right through that talk to them like you’re talking to your cousin or your friends, if you get star struck and start asking to take pictures with them they aren’t going to want to do other interviews with, they’re not going to invite you their parties.

I want to show people the lives of celebrities and let people know that you don’t have to sell your souls or lay down on the casting couch to make it in the industry. These young models need to learn that everyone is not their friend, people lie, there’s always that person outside of the club telling you to do something that won’t get you into the club.

DFW: What else do you want to share with Dayton about what you have going on?

MP: We also have a music show that we are going to be casting for and I plan on doing some stuff there it’s called IA Live, it’s music, fashion, and art. We’ve had interviews with Akon, Lady Gaga, to David Getta, and Justin Beiber. One of the alst interviews I had was with Flo Rida and Lil Wayne who is my neighbor

DFW: When we spoke a couple of weeks ago, you talked about knowing your Host weakness and you mentioned that you were friends with Lenny Kravitz and I freaked out because I love Lenny Kravitz and you said ok you are going to keep me away from Lenny, why is it important to know your Host weakness?

MP: Yeah, I live down the street from Lenny, one of my host Lechelle won’t do any interviews with Trey Songz, she melts if you talk about him. So I like to know who their weakness is, so when you said Lenny Kravitz is your weakness, when I bring you down here for some interviews, I’m keeping you away from Lenny(me and my big mouth Insert sad face and tear drops here). I like to know the weakness and the genre of music people listen to. Some people prefer to only interview the celebs that they aren’t fans of to make things easier—it’s all about having fun!

For more information check out the Inside Couture website.

Dayton Fashion Week Lands Major Endorsements

March 22, 2012 By Dayton937 Leave a Comment

The Gucci Fiat will be arriving in Dayton just in time for Dayton Fashion Week

Things just keep getting bigger AND better for Dayton Fashion Week so much so that I don’t even know where to start!! Wait–Scratch that– I do know where to start! I am VERY EXCITED to announce that luxury car brand Bob Ross Fiat has come on board as the Presenting Sponsor! “We welcome the Fiat Brand into the Dayton fashion world. As an elegant, sophisticated brand, it is the perfect fit with Dayton Fashion Week in terms of leveraging the profile of Dayton designer’s internationally.” says Junda Morris-Kennedy the founder of Dayton Fashion Week. The Fiat brand is regarded as the pre-eminent brand associated with international fashion events – including New York and Milan Fashion Weeks and the attendees of Dayton Fashion Week will have the opportunity to preview the most fashionable style of the Fiat Brand the 500C by Italian Fashion Label Gucci which is currently being endorsed by Jennifer Lopez! Special thanks to Janelle Ross of Bob Ross Fiat of Centerville for all of her hard work and dedication to the Miami Valley area and her support of Dayton Fashion Week.

Though Dayton Fashion Week isn’t taking place until July, we are officially kicking off our celebration on March 31 with a Pre-Launch Party and Soiree taking place at the Twin Base Golf Club at Wright Patterson Air Force Base located at Bldg 893 Area A Wright Patterson Afb, OH 45433. This event will be hosted by journalist, 2011 CW Star Contestant, business woman, and Queen of Dayton’s Social Scene Maha Kashani and 2011 CW Star Contestant, singer/song writer, and celebrity party host Donald Stamper. The Pre-Launch Party will also feature DJ Adam Spangler and performances by Spoken Word Artist Miss Purity and singer Erin Manderchied. Those in attendance will have the exclusive opportunity to meet the models of Dayton Fashion Week! Along with some great door prizes from our sponsors Milani Cosmetics and Coins 4 Me, there will be light hors d’oeuvres served, and a cash prize for the person wearing the most Fashionable outfit! Buy your tickets today.

Of course we already know that Inside Couture Television based out of Miami, FL is looking for 4 Host to Cover DFW, the Casting Call for this is April 7 from 10a-1p at SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park located at 2301 West River Rd, Dayton, OH 45418. But did you know that Dayton Fashion Week also made international headlines a couple of weeks ago when London based Fashion Magazine Fashion Politique named us one of the must see fashion events of the year and listed us as a partner! We also have the national media all a buzz and we welcome Atlanta, New York, and Miami based radio station 106.5 FM COLLABO who will be broadcasting live from Dayton Fashion Week. Last but certainly not least New York City based fashion magazine Just Off 7th Ave. will also be in town to cover DFW!
We’re 2 weeks into our Cover Model Contest and the competition has been stiff since day one! There have been over 5,000 votes cast so far and daily changes in the Top 5! If you haven’t voted yet you can do so by visiting our fan page at http://www.facebook.com/daytonfashion click on “photos” then go to the album labeled 2012 Cover Model Competition, “Like” your favorite photo(s) and it counts as a vote! The winner of this contest will grace the cover of the first Dayton Fashion Week Magazine. Now of course with all of this going on with DFW we are growing our staff as well! We are looking for photographers, makeup artist, and wardrobe stylist to add to our team! If you would like to join our team please contact us at [email protected].