The runway was eclectic and energetic at the fourth annual A Very Brooklyn Fashion Show, at bkOne Productions inside Industry City on Oct. 8, bringing a stylish end cap to the 20th anniversary of Brooklyn Fashion Week.
The show presented eight designers to a packed audience of fashionistas, style mavens, family, friends and a packed pit of photographers at the end of the runway.
The event was produced by Brooklyn Made, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Fashion Week Brooklyn, BK Style Foundation and bkONE, showcasing designs to a packed house.
Randy Peers, President and CEO of The Brooklyn Chamber Of Commerce, explained that the designer selection process was a team effort, with BK Style Foundation and Brooklyn Made both identifying 4 designers for the show.
A total of eight Brooklyn-based designers participated in the fashion show: Voodo Fè, Najama House, ELTSUH, Nixx Pain, Shiyenze Fashion, Trip to Earth, Uliana Urusova, and Zuriland & Co. Rick Davy, Founder and Director of the BK Style Foundation, identified four of the designers, while the Brooklyn Made store identified the other four.
Designer inspiration on the runway clocked in from Poland, Jamaica, Elista, Kalmykia (European Russia), Kenya and Brooklyn, with models across many ages.
Zuriland & Co was at the event, a brand founded by designer Kee. The children's fashion brand celebrates creativity, individuality, and childhood joy, created in collaboration with Kee's daughter and muse, Zuri. She showed a collection of whimsical pieces rooted in bold colors and spectacle, creating playful drama with flowing designs that begged to be worn for a birthday party or to make a splash for picture day at school.
Shiyenze Fashion, founded by Kenyan-born, Brooklyn-based designer Roselyne Shiyenze Khasoha, celebrates heritage, craftsmanship and community. Shiyenze Khasoha presented DIASPORA 2027, which explores identity, migration, resilience and belonging to more than one world.
The work "shares the journey of immigrants and how they evolve their fashion when they move to a different place," the designer told BK Reader. "I'm moving away from designing on survival to craftsmanship, because I will be remembered by my work, not by the profits I made."
Lifestyle clothing brand ELTSUH reimagines preppy staples as wearable affirmations.
Many pieces were emblazoned with the term "Look In The Mirror" in mirrored writing on the back, bringing positive self-talk into everyday clothing. A woven Jalen Brunson #11 jersey was shown on the runway, layered over a white button-up and knotted tie, and paired with loose, silhouette trousers.
The four designers that can be found at the Brooklyn Made store include Voodo Fè, a multidisciplinary artist who opened the presentation by showing repurposed pieces from his collections, including his collaboration with the Miles Davis estate. ELTSUH, Uliana Urusova, and Shiyenze Fashion can also be found at the Brooklyn Made store at Industry City.
