Featured Photo by Stu Boyd ll | Design by UofM Design Student: Beij King (@beijking)
Memphis has a fashion community. It has always had one. Memphis Art and Fashion Week proved it once again.
Led by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in partnership with the University of Memphis Fashion Program, MAFW brought together designers, artists, students, stylists, photographers, and fashion lovers in a shared space built for visibility, connection, and creative risk. This year, University of Memphis students were not on the sidelines. They were in the room where it happened.
Senior students Beij King, Blaze Pointer, Kelsey Keck, and Kyissa Baccus, alongside current students Eric Venson II, Giovanny Gorosteita, Marco Mata, Nancy Cebria, and TJ Jordan, worked directly with designers, retailers, artists, models, photographers, and industry professionals to bring the week to life. For many of them, it was their first real taste of the industry, and it happened in their own city, on their own terms.
That last part is the point. MAFW creative director Ramona Sonin coordinates both the week and the University of Memphis fashion design program, and the student partnership was a direct extension of her beliefs about Memphis fashion. It deserves visibility. It deserves investment. The next generation of designers should not have to leave to get their start.
Memphis Art and Fashion Week was bigger than a runway. It was a proof-of-concept that when the right institutions, educators, and community members invest in Memphis creative talent, the city builds something that belongs to itself.
