Newark’s fashionistas — including the mayor — strut their stuff on the city’s first Fashion Forward Tour

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Newark may not be Paris or Milan, but the brick city has its own fashion community, and it was strutting its stuff on the runway this weekend.

On Friday night, the inaugural citywide “Newark Fashion Forward Tour” opened at the Marbella Lounge Broadway in the city’s North Ward for the latest series of local designers, venues and related people and places.

“March Madness on the Runway” is the theme of Friday night’s event, which will highlight the city’s LGBTQIA+ community and its “contributions to moving Newark forward,” according to a statement from Mayor Ras Baraka’s office.

The Fashion Forward Tour continues on May 5 in the Central Ward and June 30 in the South Ward. “New York Fashion Forward Week” is scheduled for September 17-23. Check the Fashion Tour website newarkfashionforward.com for details.

The tour is sponsored by Newark City and area businesses in association with designer and event planner Vernest C. Moore’s Visual Consultants Group. Friday night’s co-sponsor was M·A·C Cosmetics, a New Jersey retail chain with a store in Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Baraka himself was among the models and designers who starred in Friday’s show, strutting down the runway in a camel-colored ¾-length coat and black shirt, pants, baseball cap and rubber soles. His entourage included Joyce Hancock-Williams and Grisel Pons, both women in matching black, who walked the runway arm in arm with the mayor.

Featured by local designers are a soft dress from the house of Albert Guzman and over-the-knee patent leather boots, a multi-colored skirt and shawl by Amelia Diaz, and a pink and backless dress by Ve’Moore Couture.

Newark-born fashionistas include Cuban-American designer Narciso Rodriguez. Before starting his own label, he designed Carolyn Bessette’s wedding dress from John F. Kennedy Jr.’s Newark designer Marco Hall’s atelier on downtown Halsey Street, when he worked for Calvin Klein.

“The storefronts of Halsey Street provide evidence that New York’s fashionista scene is alive and well,” Barca said in a statement. “Narciso Rodriguez, Stephen Burrows and Marco Hall, are just a few of the list of many Newark natives.

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Steve Strunsky can be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com

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