Art and fashion collide this weekend at the 11th Annual Art Walk.

Art and Fashion in the Fort Myers River District On March 31st and April 1st, the 11th Annual Art Walk Runway Fashion Show collides as it returns to the Sydney and Bern Davies Center for the Arts. Event organizer Melissa DeHaven couldn’t think of a better location for Southwest Florida’s first fashion event.

“When you walk in and see the big runway and the lights and the flowers, it’s like, wow!” DeHaven said. “You feel like you’re in a big city like Paris or New York or L.A., but it’s right here in Fort Myers.”

The glitzy, star-studded extravaganza features local, national and international designers, top-notch local entertainment and runway models who see some of the bolder, edgier, edgier and sexier sides of New York, London and Paris Fashion Week.

In the early years of the event, DeHaven struggled to find enough models to fashion for two nights. no more.

“It’s a really, really amazing show to be a part of and everyone always seems to really love it,” DeHaven said. “Everybody wants to be a part of it. All the models are always like, ‘I’m in!’ Hair and makeup people, everyone who is a part of a fashion show is always excited.

This year, DeHaven featured 65 models over two days of auditions.

“They are all amazing and beautiful and give up their time to be part of the show. You’ll get some great shots from the photographers there to capture all the amazing fashion on the runway.

Friday night’s focus is on local designers Subtle and Chic Boutique, Vivi Boutique and Art4Ware. The latter is a design house created by mixed media abstract artist Yvonne Krystman, who uses models she calls DeHaven to build living, breathing, moving sculptures.

“Dressing a model is like a sculpture,” explains Krystman. “So this is like finishing a work of art for me. Like putting all things together and building art.

In keeping with this mindset, Christman chooses the clothes her models wear based on their personality and the way they move, rather than their height, weight or shape.

“I usually ask my assigned model to send me a selfie of what you look like in real life, not their official photo,” Krystman says. Or when they come to the joint, I try to talk to someone for five minutes to see how they move, to see their behavior. It’s my starting point… For me, no, I work around the model. I want my model to be comfortable and something that suits her personality. So that’s how I build my collection that will eventually be on the runway.

This approach reflects her design philosophy by transferring her art to clothing and making it useful, thereby creating a mobile gallery for all to enjoy. In the process, her two-dimensional drawings are transformed into one-of-a-kind 3D sculptures painted with an unexpected and unpredictable kinetic element.

The results are so impressive that some Krystman customers refuse to tell their friends where they got their clothes.

I have a lot of women, sisters, who buy a lot of my clothes but they don’t tell their friends where they got them from because no, we want to be completely different.

It’s easy to be completely different at Art4Wear, where all Krstman designs are available under $100.

That’s not the case with Saturday night fashion, which often costs four if not five figures.

“April 1, the Couture Fashion Show will feature some amazing designers,” DeHaven said. “We have Asta Razma, Kenneth Barlis, Diana Couture and Mila Stone. She has a zodiac collection to offer. The good thing about Saturday is that many of these designers dress celebrities.

This is a huge selling point for models rocking the runway on Saturday night. After all, what fashionable young woman wouldn’t want to wear the thousand dollar dresses worn by Hollywood celebrities and K-pop icons like Carrie Underwood, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, Meghan Trainor and Paris Hilton. To the Grammys, CMAs and Oscars?

“They’re all, you see, like, ‘Please pick, please pick me,'” DeHaven said. “They will be happy. They will be happy on Saturday when they see the fashion they are wearing.”

While fashion may be front and center, Art Walks the Runway is also known for its visual entertainment. Friday night, that comes thanks to the Young Nation Dancers. Saturday will feature the incomparable contortionist Katarina Danks, who performs under the aptly descriptive moniker of Benedict.

Returning each year, Kat challenges herself to find ways to make her performance unique and relevant. Music plays a big part in that equation.

“My inspiration for this year’s performance is what I would describe as beautiful electronic music.” Danks said. “And if you can imagine that, I’d say it certainly has some electronic, house digital sounds, but it’s integrated into these. Beautiful songs. So it’s very complicated in the different layers of sound that you go through, and as a performer I like to play every part of those different layers in my routine.

The result is a captivating display of strength, agility and flexibility that elicits gasps from the audience.

“She holds her body up with one arm and her legs are in the air!” DeHaven shouted. “It’s amazing. The people in the audience were amazed. And that’s what happened. They are just surprised. I can hear their breathing and their eyeballs are huge. Like, who. “

This year, as Freakshow co-host Brittany Gonzalez hosts Art Walks the Runway and DJ Dream J provides that unique runway sound, all eyes will be on the models.

For more:

• Art Walks the Runway, a glittering star-studded art fashion extravaganza
• On March 31^StArt Walks the Runway treats attendees to local fashion at its best.
• On April 1^StHaute couture reigns at Art Walks the Runway.
• Yvonne Krystman is a contemporary mixed media visual artist and fashion designer. Her wearable art is a form-shifting visual art form where new forms inspire new perspectives. She is experimenting with different materials to express the ideas she explores, and includes, but is not limited to, mixed media works on canvas, clay, conceptual photography, and more. She then photographs her work and transfers it to award-winning fashion, creating a “portable gallery.”
• Kenneth Balis is an internationally recognized brand with a passion for beauty and luxury. Inspired by its artistic, imaginative and modern designs, the Barlis brand has been worn by musicians, influencers and celebrities on the red carpet, magazine covers, concerts and music videos. Barlis offers an evening gown collection, a men’s line and a bridal collection that expresses the idea of ​​bringing the modern fairy tale to life from 2019. The Kenneth Balis Collection is located in Melrose Ave, Los Angeles and San Diego, California.
• Couture designer Diana Putri is known for dressing celebrities such as Ariana Grande, Carrie Underwood, Carmen Electra, Camila Cabello, Janet Jackson and many more. As a young mother, she noticed that nothing in the stores she shopped fully satisfied her desire for fashion. So she started making her own pieces. Her fame spread through word of mouth, promoting confidence-inspiring fashions.
• Katharina Danks is a contortionist, hand-balancer and performance artist. During her performance, she makes a artistic fusion between acrobatic movements and visual expressions of art. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, she trained in Mongolian and Western contortion techniques from world-renowned trainers and circuses in Europe, Canada, USA, and Cirque du Soleil, Big Apple Circus. , Ringling Brothers and Circus Roncalli. She has performed locally for Circus Transform US, Fort Myers Film Festival, Telemundo Television, HSN, Papa John’s and previously on Art Walks the Runway. More about Danks can be found at swflcontortion.com and on Instagram @Bendykat.
• Music is an integral part of every Benediction performance. “Music and I have a great relationship,” Kat says. “I find inspiration in all kinds of music, and for me, when I’m asked to use music for my show, it’s a great product for me or something that’s very important to show the audience. It’s like a beautiful story line that you’re interpreting and trying to bring to life with your own art. For me it’s an extra layer of how I do what I do and what makes it beautiful or interesting or scary or embarrassing, but it fits and relates to what I’m doing at that time and place.
• Although the duo is keeping details under wraps, for this year’s performance, Katarina Danks is teaming up with local artist Israel Alpizar to add projection mapping to the event. The hottest new thing in public art, projection mapping is a highly imaginative, immersive storytelling technique that combines light, color, movement, sound and interactive elements. By mapping moving, projected images onto buildings, sculptures, and models, artists can transform the “canvas” into something completely strange and original. Or, as journalist and art consultant Lewis M. Brill puts it, “Whether the canvas is a 13th-century palace, a famous museum, or a half-kilometer long string of grain silos, projection mapping can effectively project high-definition video from a display screen into a rectangular prison.” “
• Saturday night’s entertainment also includes Tampa-St. Pete’s singer/songwriter Summer. “She has an absolutely beautiful voice and is incredibly entertaining,” says producer Melissa DeHaven.

To read more stories about art in Southwest Florida, visit Tom Hall’s website: SWFL Art in the News.
Spotlight on the Arts for WGCU is supported in part by Naomi Blue, Jay and Toshiko Tompkins, and Julie and Phil Wade.