By Rukhshona Islamova |Feature|
Sixteen-year-old Maia Ramsay, a senior at Lincoln High, caught the attention of the people she needed to in order to be a part of this show.
Omaha Fashion Week is the smaller, less glamorous, but still exciting version of New York, Milan and Paris fashion week. Although it’s located in good old Nebraska, Omaha Fashion Week is the nation’s 5th largest fashion event supporting more independent fashion designers than any other organization in the region.
It is a fashion show held at the Omaha Design Center that occurs every year. This year the show ran from August 21-26, 2017, and it was the 10th anniversary of Omaha Fashion Week.
With it being the tenth anniversary, something special had to have happened, and it did.
The creator of the original New York Fashion Week, Fern Mallis, came and participated as a judge. While New York Fashion Week is for elite designers and models, the show in Omaha is more for exposure and experience than anything else.
There are also a couple of amazing prizes that are awarded to the designers.
Most people participating in the behind the scenes of the show are just trying to get noticed. Hair stylists, makeup artists, designers and models from all around the midwest are attempting to present their best in order to catch the attention that they’re working for.
One day, while shopping at the South Pointe mall Ramsay noticed a casting call for Omaha Fashion Week, something she had heard about a few times before. She had no modeling experience, but still went for it and made the cut. Around June, she went to the casting call where they were asked to walk in 4 inch heels and wear form fitting clothing in which they were photographed and videoed in.
Casting agents watched the models’ every move to decide who would make the cut. After a few weeks they called her back informing her that she was chosen to walk in the show.
In early August, all the models had to attend a boot camp to prep for the show. They went to the Omaha Design Center and were given tours and taught how to navigate the venue and runway. Experienced models came in and taught them how to walk, how to act and how to be confident and show it.
“Confidence was definitely a big part of walking in the show, but some girls took it a little too far. Some girls were really snooty. Luckily this kind of behavior wasn’t tolerated in the show and they were threatened to be kicked out,” Ramsay said.
There were a lot of designers presenting at the show and each one had about 12-14 looks that they designed and sewed themselves. Some designers worked in groups for a central brand and either worked together or split up looks
To be chosen to have your designs presented at the show, you must turn in your portfolio that includes sketches of all your looks. If you are chosen, you have to go through a rack check three weeks before the show, where you must have at least the basic design of every one of your looks put together. At these rack checks, the finalists that present at the VIP Runway Finale are chosen, even before the show has begun. The designers are given no limits and are allowed to do whatever they want to with their designs.
“I was shocked to see one designer who’s whole collection consisted of Walmart jeans and sequin fabric,” Ramsay said. Zaftig Kitty a brand designed by Korinne Zimmerman – one of the designers Ramsay walked for, was named the season’s top emerging designer and was awarded with a prize package focused towards talent development and education.
Ramsay said that although her overall experience was pretty good, she doesn’t think she would do anymore modeling gigs right now. Not because she didn’t like it, but because it’s so time consuming and interferes with her school life. She would choose her education over her modeling career now and in the future.
“I used to want to pursue fashion for my future, but then I realized that I should give back to the world before I gave back to myself,” Ramsay said.
