What: For The Sake of Art 2014.
Where: The University Museum at Texas Southern University.
The 411: More than 200 art and fashion patrons gathered for the biannual fundraiser highlighting 14 up-and-coming fashion designers who were asked to create imaginative and dramatic wearable art inspired by the TSU museum collection. Following a runway show, in which Houston Chronicle fashion writer Joy Sewing and Dallas curator Phillip Collins commented on the designs, judges Cesar Galindo, Elizabeth Anyaa and Lora Clemmons narrowed the list to six finalists and selected the winners.
For the first time in the competition’s history, one designer, Linda Morgan-Sodders, won First Prize, Most Creative, and the People’s Choice Award. Her hand-painted avant-garde design was a tribute to jazz with an asymmetrical composition created with grommets rather than traditional seams. Second place went to designer Krystle Holnes for her hand-woven rope skirt and paper jacket and third place was awarded to John Sweeney for his dramatic red, black, and white ensemble with hand-painted rust cape.
During a cocktail hour, guests enjoyed music by The Evidence Jazz Quartet, bid on a silent auction on works by Houston contemporary artists Robert Pruitt, Regina Agu and Jamal Cyrus, and viewed the exhibition Playing by Dragon Rules: The Art of Abidemi Olowonira and Gregory Michael Carter.
Who: The fashionable crowd included gala chairs Cheryl Elliott Thornton and Peter Byron Thornton, honorary chairs Drucie Chase and Hazel Biggers, TSU president John Rudley and Docia Rudley, Cheryl and Percy Creuzot, Paige Cawthon, Alison Leland, Merele Yarborough, Dina Alsowayel and Anthony Chase, Melanie Lawson, Annette and Arthur Bracey, competition coordinator Andrea Bonner, fashion designer Toni Whitaker, Selven O’Keef Jarmon, Michael Perenteau, and Sarah and Willie Trotty.
Melanie Lawson, from left, Toni Whitaker, Alvia Wardlaw and Elizabeth Anyaa.
