Through her Project Alabama designs, Natalie is selected as an emerging designer to watch by UPS (United Parcel Service), in collaboration with 7th on Sixth. Ten fashion designers, selected from a field of 300, show in Bryant Park during Olympus Fashion Week. Iterations of New York Fashion Week during the 1990s and early 2000s, 7th on Sixth and Olympus Fashion Week are considered by many to be fashion week’s best of times.
Project Alabama presents a ready-to-wear collection in the Bryant Park tents with a collection in Gold, White, and Navy, featuring a geometric pattern motif, and the hand-embroidered embellishments which are now a collection staple. Artisans from Alabama fly to New York to work on the show. T-shirts, created in collaboration with Chi Modu, are presented alongside the collection and feature some of his most iconic images of hip-hop artists.
The show is additionally sponsored by Aveda, for hair styling, and Lancome, for makeup. A live band plays regional music to accompany the runway show, with Jake Fussel on guitar and featuring award-winning 10-year-old Ruby Jane Smith on fiddle.
Learn more about Jake Fussell here.
Learn more about Ruby Jane Smith here.
Read The New York Times’ piece about the show, written in advance of the presentation here.
Slide 1: Model polaroids from a casting for Project Alabama’s runway show at Bryant Park during Olympus Fashion Week, 2005, photograph by Robert Rausch, models (clockwise) Marie, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Barbara, and J.P.
Slide 2: Project Alabama Spring 2006 Ready-to-Wear show at Bryant Park, 2005, photographs by Marcio Madeira, models (from left) Marie and Lisa
Slides 3–4: Model casting polaroids for Project Alabama’s runway show at Bryant Park during Olympus Fashion Week, photograph by Robert Rausch, models (clockwise) Lisa, Tiiu, Anna J., Juliana, Priscilla, Portia, Shannon, and Tiiu
Slide 5: Project Alabama Spring 2006 Ready-to-Wear show at Bryant Park, 2005, photographs by Marcio Madeira
Slide 6: Invitation requesting the presence of press, friends, and guests for Project Alabama’s Olympus Fashion Week runway show, photograph by Robert Rausch