I’ve never been the most on top of the fashion world. When I flipped through the pages of Vogue as a kid I could never put my finger on what made certain outfits so visually appealing. That being said, I was extremely excited to attend the Bronze Elegance annual fashion charity show this year, and see the diverse and choreographed fashion production I had heard about.
One of the things that that became instantly apparent as I walked in the door was how stylish the general crowd attending this show was. Almost all of the attendees were dressed to the nines, with several of the women standing in line with me looking like they could have just stepped off the runway themselves. After I had a wrist band tied around my wrist, I headed to find a seat to the side of the stage, and waited for the show to begin. They had mounted a large screen over the stage, so that everyone could get multiple different angles and views of the models no matter where they happened to be seating.
As soon as the first model walked out onto stage, we were immediately treated to something far closer to a choreographed dance than a runway walk, where each model interacted with the other models walking behind them in some way. This same alternative and performance-oriented direction was carried out throughout the show, with each collection having a different type of “choreography,” or element that made it special and stand apart. My only complaint with the first collection was that the outfits were not cohesive, however later collections were much more cohesive, and fit together perfectly.
Another interesting element of the fashion show was the space in which it was held itself. When decorated and separated by a large black curtain, the inside of the gym was transformed into an almost entirely new space. One of my favorite aspects of the venue is that there were large windows on either side of the gymnasium, and as the fashion show progressed we could see the light outside gradually fading into pitch black as the sun set, adding to the ambiance of the show. Additionally, I liked how the lighting changed throughout, colors picked carefully to complement the designs on stage. Perhaps my favorite element of the environment were the fog machines, which were used off and on throughout the show. During one particularly foggy section it seemed as if the models completely emerged from an entered into a foggy portal at the back of the stage, really adding to the feel of the show! Later on, as one of the final and most dramatic runway walks, all the lights were shut off as black lights were turned on to reveal glow in the dark body paint over all of the models!
My favorite collection presentation of the entire night came at the end of the first half, where six dancers came out onto either side of the runway, and proceed to do an expertly choreographed dance routine as the models walked through the middle. After this astonishing performance intermission started, giving me time to mingle and prepare myself for the second half.
The second half of the show also featured two different musical artists performing in between the individual collections. While I failed to catch the name of the first performer, the second performer was a budding musician and former vine star Wolf Tyga. These music interludes were a fun way to further break up the shows and diversify what was being presented. In general I really enjoyed the music picked for the background of each collection in the show, and thought that the music was picked well to fit with the theme of each collection and further emphasize them.
Every time I thought that the last collection would be the flashiest and most impressive, they managed to change things up and keep me more and more intrigued. Now I truly understand why their tagline was “A show with fashion” instead of just a “fashion show.”
To follow bronze elegance and get information about their future projects and next year’s show you can check out their official website or their instagram,
