The Making of a Fashion Show: Locals Serve Up Sexy With a Side of Serious

It may be called a fashion show, but don’t expect the traditional version of one. Instead it’s more like Julia Mancuso meets “Dirty Dancing.” And in its fifth year, the spectacle has morphed into a community celebration rallying around an important cause: sexual and mental health awareness through the Aspen Hope Center.
 
For the past month, 37 models, 12 backstage technicians and another dozen event volunteers have worked diligently to prepare for a 57-minute kaleidoscope of color, sound and body-bending. Local “models” — a loose term that actually requires their talent to lie in movement rather than striking looks (though they’ve got those too) — auditioned for the show in early February. Of those selected, some have backgrounds in dance and theater, while others are putting it out there for the first time.
 
“I heard about last year, and attended and had so much fun that I couldn’t resist being in it this year,” says Jessica Hite, who grew up in the valley and danced for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and Dance Progressions.
 
Hite is one of nearly 40 locals who will bare their bodies onstage. This is the first year the event has been done almost entirely by Aspenites, even though it has Telluride roots. When Ramona Bruland, an Aspen-based television host and director for the nonprofit presenting the event, Aspen Cares, lived in Telluride, she was used to the town throwing down for its annual AIDS benefit with a well-choreographed fashion show. After Aspen became her home, she thought it needed its own version of the gala.
 
“I was approached to see if Aspen would be interested in using it as a fundraising tool,” she says.
 
In 2011, the fashion show debuted, but it consisted of all Telluride residents (with the exception of Bruland) who came to Aspen to perform — something Aspen wouldn’t tolerate. The event evolved and gained buzz, and  today it’s produced by a local team, though choreographer Katy Parnello has remained a constant. She orchestrates the theatrics for similar shows around the country, so there’s a basic template that’s filled in by local talent, and then filled out with original choreography for Aspen, says Bruland.
 
On Monday, the group took their first turns on the catwalk while Katy Perry, Blackstreet and the Naked and Famous pumped from the Belly Up sound system. With more than 35 designers — featuring everything from local retailers like Blk Mkt and O2 Aspen to Dennis Basso and Phax Swimwear — the pace is rapid and there is rarely a dull moment between the more than 20 scene changes. Combine that with Belly Up’s state-of-the-art lighting and staging, and it’s a real-deal, professional show.
 
 Ross Daniels
It’s Kalle Edwards’ fourth year participating, and this year she has dual roles: on stage and debuting her own performance line, In Play Athletics.
 
“I was hooked,” she says, after going on stage the first year.
 
Besides being able to dance again — she started the high school dance team here in Aspen — she says the friendships formed with the rest of the crew are the best part.
 
“It’s the best time of the year,” she says, adding that the audience interaction makes it “that much more fun.
 
“They (the audience) feels so much more involved. You’re on top of them, weaving around them and in their face in the reserved section,” she says.
 
The show’s actual fashion ranges from racy negligees to robust outerwear. Last year was the first time Edwards participated in the lingerie line, and it was “definitely an experience, standing in front of everyone I know in my underwear,” she says, “but after that I thought, ‘I can do anything.’”
 
Skippy Mesirow agrees.
 
“Choreographed dance is well out of my comfort zone,” he says. “But luckily I’ve never had a hard time being in front of a crowd.”
He says the show is a tremendous amount of work, but the payoff is big.
 
“There’s a reason you come back,” says Mesirow, participating for his third year. “It’s an incredible amount of fun, a fantastic group of people, an amazing cause and it feels like the rowdy old days of Aspen.”
 
That energy is something Bruland and her team have built on. Since debuting in Aspen, organizers have added a second show earlier in the evening, an online auction (aspencares.org) featuring more than 90 items and a pop-up sample sale at Casa Tua so people can purchase items from the fashion show at discounted prices. Proceeds benefit the Aspen Hope Center, as well as WestCAP, a community-based care and prevention service center for HIV-positive individuals, and the HIV clinic at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction where Roaring Fork residents can get treated.
 
“It’s not a regular fashion show where we are showing next season’s fashion by such brand,” says Bruland. “It’s any season and any size, and we use them as a costume to express a theatrical fashion show.”
 
That makes it sexy with a serious message.

christine@aspendailynews.com

Aspen Cares Theatrical
Fashion Show
Friday, March 25
Sneak Peek Show: 5:30 p.m.
$25/GA, $95/runway and reserve
Gala Show: 9 p.m. 
$55/GA, $250/reserved

Aspen Cares Sample Sale
Sunday, March 27
1-4 p.m. at Casa Tua

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