The 47th Annual Ebony Fashion Fair event comes to South Florida on Friday January 28 (Miami) and Thursday, February 3 (Ft Lauderdale).
Here's what the Miami Herald has to say about the event:
"On a fashion runway some 30 years ago, a model struck a pose in a winter-white suit by designer Bill Blass: Fox collar, micro-belt, A-line skirt. The apparition, recalled Audrey Smaltz, the show's commentator, was divine. 'If the invitation reads, `Don't dress,' consider this,'' Smaltz coolly teased the audience. Their response, she said, was nothing short of ``hollering and screaming.''
Long before cable TV ushered haute couture into the living room, the traveling Ebony Fashion Fair gave middle-class Americans, both black and white, an unparalleled firsthand look at some of the most exquisite dresses in the world -- and did so with African-American models. Created in 1958 by Ebony Magazine founder and publisher John H. Johnson, and his wife Eunice, Ebony Fashion Fair began as a vibrant, music-infused spectacle to raise money for black causes.
Now in its 47th year, the traveling show is performed in 180 cities and towns annually, and has contributed more than $50 million to scholarships for black people. The Gamma Zeta Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority has brought the show to Miami since its inception. It arrives at the University of Miami Convocation Center on Friday. Years ago, said Barbara Mason-Gardiner, publicity chairperson for the Miami chapter, a ticket to the Ebony Fashion Fair was more than a night of entertainment; it was an entrée into another world."
Congratulations to Alpha Kappa Alpha on a great event for such a worthy cause!!