A local group is putting together Lakeland’s first ever Fashion Week.
High fashion and Haute Couture are two things most don’t normally hear mentioned with the city of Lakeland. But local designers like Jasmine Hunter are looking to change that.
“I am. One client at a time,” said Hunter, who is from Lakeland.
She debuted her fashion line Jay Hunt Designs at this year’s New York Fashion Week.
Another big name in fashion and in Lakeland is the Allusions by A-lekay swimsuit line. Designer Altricia Cook designs the high waist swimsuits.
She’s also been to fashion week and had rapper Nicki Minaj wear her swimsuit on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine’s July issue.
“It was pretty amazing. It was a wow factor for me,” Cook said.
That wow factor is exactly what the designers from Lakeland plan to bring to the first ever Lakeland Fashion week.
This weekend, designers and organizers had their open casting call for models- all of them local of course.
“It’s just that we haven’t been put on the map the way that Tampa and Orlando is so we need this,” said model Lorenzo Edwards. “We need to grow in that way because we can blow up and be just as big as Brooklyn Fashion Week where I just came from.”
And if you’re scratching your head wondering…Lakeland? Fashion Week? Lakeland Fashion Week organizer Ekho Powell said people are in for a real treat.
“I’ve actually had people call me and they asked me in a very nice way, ‘You do know what Fashion Week is right?’ And I was like we’re Polk County, we’re not the moon. We know what fashion week is and it’s a proper fashion week too,” Powell said.
So whether you want to see the some of the hottest designs of the fall or some of the area’s talented models, it’s all going to be on the runway at this year’s Lakeland Fashion Week.
The show runs September 29 through October 3rd. For more information about Lakeland Fashion Week http://www.lakelandfashionweek.com/.