Runway fashion show

Ebony Fashion fair's 'The Great Fashion Mix' opens 39th season with dazzling show

Ebony Fashion Fair's The Great Fashion Mix recently left an audience of fashion lovers dazzled when the world's largest traveling fashion show debuted its 39th annual tour in Matteson, IL, at the Holiday Inn.

With a sold-out audience of patrons at the Sycamore Ballroom, the 14 models for this year's performance showed the anxious crowd the power behind this season's fashion message - mixing.

The sensational show was hosted by the Joliet (IL) Area Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority with proceeds benefiting the sorority's scholarship fund and various charities.

Whether strutting down the runway displaying Italian designer Gattinoni's mixture of colors and fabric textures or Gianfranco Ferre's stretch fabrics accentuated with lace nettings of gold beads, glossy pearls or black crystals, the models showed mixing never looked so magnificent on one stage.

From fun in the sun to casual cool to evening elegance, The Great Fashion Mix had something in store for all. And, unique designs from the E Style catalog, a joint venture between Ebony and Spiegel, which features clothes and accessories designed especially for women of color, were also modeled.

As with every year, Mrs. Eunice W. Johnson. Ebony Fashion Fair producer-director, has traveled abroad to bring fashion patrons the world's most beautiful designs from the top fashion houses in the U.S. and Europe.

Lovely creations that left the audience in awe were featured by top American, Italian, French and British designers.

Black and white proved to be popular colors that never go out of style, while exotic, animal prints opened the possibility of new ways to mix and match one's wardrobe.

Explaining the appeal of The Great Fashion Mix, Mrs. Johnson notes, "This season's clever mixture of textures is everyone's fascination and makes simple shapes and versatile combinations key."

Mrs. Johnson adds: "This year's colors give birth to sweetness and range from a variety of rich wood shades to the deepest reds, passionate purples and muted gold tones. Accessories are wittily blended with a synthesis of materials that shimmer and shine."