‘Best of Texas’ Fashion Showroom- Event Recap
Part article / part impact report for our Q4 pop up event. Written by Emma Robinson
As the year of 2024 came to an end, the Central Texas Fashion Coalition set out to create an event that captured the growth we continue to see in Austin’s local sustainable fashion community. On December 8th, 2024, The Central Texas Fashion Coalition set up its Winter showroom pop-up. The team hand selected 13 of Austin’s best local designers to highlight, who showcased their work gallery-style as guests connected with them and their art.
Brands featured in our Showroom
The pop-up took place at DASA, an activation space that was recently launched by the Downtown Austin Alliance. As people roamed the Austin streets, our open door brought guests from all over the city into our pop-up, catching the eye of fashion lovers and highlighting a new experience and resource for locals and visitors alike. More than 200 guests attended the showroom, and it’s safe to say very few left without a new piece of ethically-made jewelry or clothing, supporting creatives and their community.
Greeting guests right at the door was a stack of “Fashion Passports”, a little green booklets that visitors could use to drive connection between themselves and the designers. The “passports” included pages that guests could add badges to after meeting with a designer or vendor. Each designer had their own personalized badge, and after the show, guests were able to take home their passports, keeping track of their favorite vendors, and taking home a little piece of the Best of Texas Showroom.
The Activations:
While guests enjoyed the gallery, they also had the opportunity to participate in multiple activations from the artists, and join an interactive raffle and giveaway, all while enjoying the complimentary sips and music.
Our first activation featured Barbara Minor of Breakfast Friend , a contemporary artist living and creating in San Antonio, TX. Barbara hand-paints her creations in small batches from her home studio. She’s recognized around town for her quirky designs like sardines, flowers and other edibles.
For the showroom event, she set up a station that focused on hand-painting custom designs, live and in-person. Guest were invited to bring their own accessories to breathe new life into them.
The next activation highlighted in the Best of Texas showroom was an interactive color and season analysis hosted by Amy Lohr.
Amy was able to bring a unique component to the showroom, offering quality color-analysis sessions at a price fixed lower just for the showroom! These types of sessions are often seen with a price tag in the hundreds, and guests were able to connect with Amy for $20, making this experience quite impactful.
Her station was magnetic, and guests and vendors alike were lining up to learn about this new tool they were able to put into their styling inventory!
The final activation featured in the showroom was an operational permanent jewelry station presented by Wanderbliss-a locally founded brand set up in Austin, TX that specializes in ethically handcrafted jewelry.
While the jewelry was being crafted, Wanderbliss also served as an educational station, informing guests who stopped by on the techniques used, and origins of the unique jewelry brand.
The Wanderbliss station created a fascinating and exciting experience. Guests stopped by to get their very own piece of “permanent” jewelry, taking home a lasting memory of their Best of Texas experience.
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In addition to sharing a recap to capture the essence of the day-we also wanted to share some data we collected from our vendors:
The information provided is based on average #’s taken from a survey that we sent out after the event.
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-Most vendors sold 5-10 items or 20-30 services throughout the day.
-Most vendors made between $250-$1,000 in sales.
-All vendors felt that they met their overall goal for the event-wether that goal was collecting leads, display/merchandising skills, sales, or customer feedback.
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Thank you to our entire team for your hard work producing this event (a special thank you to Mary McLennan). Our team works tirelessly all year to bring together the slow fashion community and support slow fashion professionals in the Central Texas area. If you believe in the work that we are doing and agree that slow fashion is an important part of the artistic culture that makes Austin so special-please consider donating!
