Fashion Indie Week Brooklyn Kicks Off on the Brooklyn Bridge

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Femia, 09/02/08

We showed up at the Fashion Indie Week Brooklyn runway show on the Brooklyn Bridge (at rush hour, no less) very eager to see how they would pull it off. The verdict? Well, they started about forty-five minutes late. As one of the many editor types milling around the bridge said, "It's fashion—what do you expect?" But because the show was so late, and because the bridge was teeming with tourists and bikers and other civilians, and because we have active imaginations, we spent those forty-five minutes wondering if perhaps Fashion Indie Week Brooklyn was playing some kind of arty prank on us. If the bridge was the runway, maybe everyone was a model!

But then, as the sun was beginning to set, a pack of maybe 20 models—actual models, not Belgian tourists—came stomping across the bridge after a guy wearing a Brooklyn Fashion Week t-shirt. Some wore heels, which was remarkable given that the runway was made out of slats of wood in between which you could see Olafur Eliasson's DUMBO waterfall churning. Some wore gladiator sandals. The show's designers included former Project Runway contestant Zulema Griffin and a whole host of Williamsburgers: Mandate of Heaven, Love Brigade, Brooklyn Royalty. Without an announcer or any signs, though, it was impossible to tell who dressed which model, or who was responsible for the standout look, a gigantic pink, ruffly dress that picked up the pink in the sky. Wearing it, the model didn't for a minute blend into the rush hour traffic, even as pedestrians streamed past her on each side.
· Fashion Indie [Official Site]