North Bay Fashion Ball pushes boundaries and creates safe space for all

Regional manner designers joined forces May well 28 for the initial North Bay Fashion Ball and Pageant at Petaluma’s Phoenix Theater to benefit Confront to Encounter, a Santa Rosa nonprofit corporation doing the job to conclusion HIV in Sonoma County.

To kick off the evening, dancers from Santa Rosa Junior College and Isis Goddess Temple, an interfaith temple in Geyserville, accompanied by drummers, paraded all around the location “to produce a towering cyclone of booty-shaking vitality,” according to organizer Cincinnatus Hibbard.

Attendees, encouraged to arrive dressed in shiny and bold outfits, then took to the runway for a possibility to earn a tiara in one of eight themed classes: tarot card, Achieved Gala, gender drag, pop/rock star, upcycled/recycled, pageant use, Y2K and miscellaneous.

Sporting a handmade rainbow bodysuit, Jaqueline Smith was declared the general winner and was awarded an invitation to existing a trend collection at next year’s celebration.

A vogue exhibit highlighted performs by designers and stylists handpicked by Hibbard, every single symbolizing a diverse aesthetic and age team. Featured have been designer Janet Aguirre, moral style duo Mathilde Amiot and Joshua Thwaites from Major Mouth One of a kind, artist and apparel painter Alejandro Salzar and Buck Fortunate Collective founder Lena Claypool.

The night time ended with a general performance by Yozmit the Dogstar.

Tickets to the ball had been $15. Pageant contestants got in for $7.50.

The function raised more than $2,500 for Facial area-to-Face and an nameless donor matched the quantity. Funds lifted will go toward the organization’s avoidance and care courses, which deliver HIV tests and immediate assistance to Sonoma County people dwelling with HIV.

“When you split clothing rules, which outline social identifications and roles, you destabilize individuals and probably make independence … it really is an act of rise up,” Hibbard stated.