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Elegance from 'Ebony'
The annual fundraiser fashion show brings haute couture to the catwalk in Tampa.
By VALERIE Q. CARINO
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 1, 2001
[Times files]
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TAMPA -- If you think haute couture is limited to the runways of Paris or Milan, you may want to stop by the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center this Sunday. At 5 p.m., the stage will be cleared for a catwalk, a live band and all the designer outfits one woman could pick up during her shopping sprees in Manhattan and overseas.
The lucky shopper is Eunice Johnson, wife of publishing mogul John Johnson, owner of Ebony and Jet magazines.
The couple started the Ebony Fashion Fair, a fashion show that tours the country and serves as the largest fundraiser for the Urban League. The league offers youth programs and job placement and training for African-Americans.
Now in its 43rd year, the show has drawn as many as 1,000 people in Tampa in years past.
"You should see them," said Joyce Latson, an Urban League Guild member who organized the event in Tampa. "There'll be women all extremely beautiful wearing hats, gloves, fur pieces. It's all about glamor, glamor, glamor."
Expect to see some pieces from designers including Yves St. Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino and Halston.
If you go, you will pay $30 for your ticket and whatever else you can afford as a donation. Latson assures you will be captivated by what you see.
"This is not just a regular fashion show," she said. "They come with a live band, and the fashions are just spectacular. Everyone in the audience just goes 'aah.' "
Some garments are so spectacular that their price tags may have four zeros.
"The audience often says, 'I wouldn't have the nerve to wear that anywhere,' " Latson said.
But that is the essence of haute couture: the more dramatic, the more colorful, the more expensive, the better.
As an active member of the Urban League Guild for the past 25 years, Latson is happy that the fashion show keeps coming back to Tampa.
"It's a great opportunity to give back to the community," Latson said. "After you do it for a while, you just get hooked."
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