Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

'Wow' from swim to wedding wear

After a Tampa appearance, the 48th annual show comes to St. Petersburg tonight.

By SHERRI DAY
Published January 30, 2006

	[Times photo: Daniel Wallace]
	Wearing a white form-fitting wedding gown with a fur stole, Andrea Keesee and Robert Griffin, wearing a tux coordinated with the gown, presented the final outfits of the evening.
	[Times photo: Daniel Wallace]
	Ebony Miller models an outfit designed in Japan during the "Stripe It Up" scene of the second half of Sunday's fashion show.

TAMPA - The fashion savvy know the Ebony fashion show begins even before the models take the stage.

Minutes before the 48th annual Ebony Fashion Fair began at the Tampa Theatre on Sunday night, A.J. Joiner adjusted his ensemble. A college administrator, he made sure his chocolate suit was flawless. A beige and brown scarf was draped across his shoulders, and a chocolate bow tie and caramel porkpie complemented his cream and brown alligator and calf-skin laceups.

The piece de resistance ?

A fox fur belt that was draped around his waist.

"The old adage (says) if you look good, you feel good," Joiner said before slipping into the elegantly attired crowd.

Nearby, M.A. Judge stepped into the show wearing an asymmetrical leopard print hat. Judge, who has attended the show for 25 years, always pays attention to every detail. Her black pantsuit was 100 percent silk. Lime green snakeskin stiletto sling-backs adorned her feet.

"A lady does not wear boots," said Judge, 65. "She wears snakeskin sling-backs."

Judge joined more than 850 fashion connoisseurs at Sunday's show, hosted by the Tampa-Hillsborough Urban League Guild, the Urban League's fundraising arm.

Dubbed "Fit to be Fabulous," the show featured designs plucked from catwalks around the world. Designers included Ella Singh, Christian Lacroix, Roberto Cavalli and Tracy Reese.

Lois Davis, acting chairwoman of the Urban League's board, said the organization would use the money raised from the event's gate - tickets were $30 - to support its programs.

"We are still offering programs and doing an excellent job," she said. "We need the community's support."

The fashion show moves to the Coliseum in St. Petersburg tonight.

As Tampa's audience settled in, models strutted across the stage in outfits that ranged from barely-there swimsuits and micro-minis to bejeweled blue jeans and Southeast Asian-inspired evening gowns. Everywhere, there was fur.

Thomas Blake, 40, got the urge to get on stage.

"I feel like modeling," he said before quickly changing his mind. "I was just joking. I'm not getting up there."

Normally articulate, educated women, Dayana Gutierrez and Alanna McKinney were reduced to one-word responses.

"Wow," they said at the sight of a cranberry and black evening gown by designer Zang Toi. "Wow," again as a model glided across stage in a pink gown embellished with sequins and ostrich feathers.

But the show's finale, capped by a bride in a form-fitting white wedding gown and white fur stole, brought an admission: "That's my wedding dress," said Gutierrez, 20.

"I thought you weren't going to get married," McKinney said.

"Now, I am."

--Sherri Day can be reached at 813 226-3405 or sday@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 30, 2006, 00:32:10]