The Spectacle: Seafaring Fashions and the Concentrated Loveliness

Summer at Sea, West 18th Street Fashion Show

Preface: The Spectacle

Photo by Phil Peterson

The West 18th Street Fashion Show is a remarkable showcase of talented local designers as well as the creative community and hometown patrons at large. Now in its eight year, the fashion continues to be a popular draw among spectators and paparazzi with good reason as the following words and images of our contributors will recount.

At PresentMagazine.com, we chose a different approach to this season’s fashion event, a glimpse beyond the customary deluge of images featuring shapely models in eye-popping designs and shorthand of who wore what. Proudly, we recognize that the show, local designers, and their fashions are being recognized, written about, and photographed in local, national, and international publications. What could we bring to the mix this year?

We chose to celebrate and document the West 18th Street Fashion Show as a Spectacle. It is the culmination in a single night of countless hours and work over months by local artists, musicians, business owners, volunteers, models, and designers. It is a grand gathering of street theater and civic joie de vivre on and off the catwalk. Equally important, the turnout each year is an open-air acknowledgment of what can be accomplished by a few that is celebrated by and shared with many.

This year, we challenged photographer Phil Peterson and writer Kevin Kuzma––two of our most talented and capable contributors––to capture the spirit, scope, and essence of the Spectacle. Not only the fashion and beautiful bodies on display for one night, but also the spectators, musicians, artists, and models that exist in unscripted moments and lose themselves in a communal display for all to behold. Isn’t that the most beautiful act of all? To fashion a regard for each other (as a manner of doing something, observing others) and to regard fashion as curated style and designed ideas come to fruition.

Phil and Kevin met the challenge as the following words and images demonstrate. Welcome to the Spectacle.

—Pam Taylor and Pete Dulin

Photo by Phil Peterson

Photo by Phil Peterson

Photo by Phil Peterson

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