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Founded in April 2011, Nashville Fashion Week was conceived to foster Nashville’s heralded community spirit and concentration of creative, fashion-forward, and entrepreneurial talent.
It’s also a way to support emerging designers: Ticket proceeds benefit the Nashville Fashion Forward Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, which gives an annual award to advance the career of select local talent with demonstrated experience in a fashion-related field. The annual celebration of all things fashionably Nashville is back on the runway after a year of virtual events, and to celebrate we’ve asked Nashville Fashion Week cofounder Marcia Masulla to give us the chic scoop.
Following are her words.
“Over the last eighteen months, both my fellow cofounder and managing partner, Connie Richardson, and I were reminded of what truly matters, and were heartened by moments in everyday acts of humanity and resilience. Connie and I have discussed the realities and struggles of the industry (that we love so much) again and again, and we hope that our optimism shines through here. The fashion industry as a whole has been struggling with much needed change for years.
As we approached the ten-year mark, Nashville Fashion Week was making big strides with collaboration, diversity, and sustainability as markers for the future direction of Nashville Fashion Week. A lot of what we were planning in 2020 is more pertinent than ever and it’s exciting to consider how these pillars will continue to grow in years to come.In April 2020, our grand 10-year anniversary plans for Nashville Fashion Week were completely derailed by both the ongoing effects of COVID-19 and the tornado that ravaged our community. It was during this time that we were given an opportunity to slow down, reflect, and pay attention to the community around us. We stood together with our fashion community and shifted our in-person programming and events to a virtual format last August.
We also teamed up with designers and manufacturers to donate over 1,000 masks to MasksNOW, Tennessee’s efforts. Lastly, we chose to stall our mission to raise funds for our Nashville Fashion Forward Fund of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and instead issued $500 emergency grants to each of the nineteen 2020 NFW designers. Essentially, we did the best that we could with what we had. And, you know what? Looking back at it, all, that’s more than enough. So, how do we move forward? We may be a little weathered, yet we are also feeling recharged and inspired, but we are actively taking the steps to continue to innovate. We are ready to celebrate the Nashville fashion community while also shaking things up along the way.
Now is the time to Imagine. Will you join us? Our fall lineup is designed to safely explore, test, and shape the future of Nashville fashion in a meaningful way. We are finally able to offer a runway platform for the selected 2020 designers that will include the new format of being streamed and featured on the CFDA Runway360 global digital platform. Alongside 11 of our contemporaries from cities across the U.S., Nashville Fashion Week is now an active part of the newly launched CFDA Connects membership network. This program is in support of regional fashion weeks through promotion, business support, resources, and member privileges. CFDA Connects exists to influentially amplify our NFW mission, expand our reach, increase our awareness, and strengthen our connection to the pulse of business, commerce, media and trade in the American fashion industry and globally.With the pandemic still in progress, our team is staying on top of and abiding by health and safety restrictions set by the Metro Health Department.
We are refraining from our large-scale runway events and instead offering a limited number of supporters a rare behind the scenes access to a runway experience. Our 2021 runway shows will be filmed and produced by our longstanding sponsors MTSU and Bright Event Productions at our runway partners OZ Arts Nashville’s facility in September. While we have some fun other events on the schedule, we will only have 50 of these VIP passes available and they will include access to events at the Country Music Hall of Fame, National Museum of African American Music, and W Nashville, along with a mask created by designer and NFW alum, Any Old Iron, and more. VIP Passes are available for $300 and can be purchased along with individual event tickets at nashvillefashionweek.com.”