The Ebony Fashion Fair — a catwalk show that traveled across the country, Canada and the Bahamas bringing designer fashion from around the world
to predominantly black audiences — has put it’s fall 2009 schedule on hiatus. The reason? The economy. Just a year after celebrating its 50th anniversary, the annual show featuring African-American female and male models has been canceled by the producer Johnson Publishing Company, which also publishes Ebony and Jet magazines. The traveling style show (one bus filled with 10 female models, two male models, assorted dressers and more than 200 outfits) showcases the couture of up to 80-something designers (like Christian Lacroix, left and Marc Bouwer, below) from America, England, France, Japan, Canada, India and Germany in a slick production of choreographed catwalk capers: The female models “worked” their colorful coats and fur-trimmed wraps like whirling dervishes while male models pumped their pectorals for an appreciative — and vocal — audience. It was all G-rated flirtatiousness. Traditionally, at every stop on the year-long trek was a local fundraiser for civic organizations and charities. Since 1958, the Ebony Fashion Fair show has donated over $55 million to charitable organizations. Here in South Florida, there were stops in each county; usually West Palm Beach and then Dade in late January and Broward in early February.
The cancellation is also a big hit in West Palm Beach, where Delta Sigma Theta Sorority produced the show to raise money for its college scholarship program for local graduating high school students.
