Picture this: You’re surrounded by brightly colored outfits and bouquets of the finest flowers as a warm breeze blows through your perfectly styled hair, and the sound of champagne bottles being popped fills your ears. This is the perfect description of the 2024 Greenville Fashion Week.
The theme of this year’s show was “Greenville in Bloom,” which resulted in bright colors and pastels worn by all guests and numerous floral and spring collections displayed by designers.
Greenville Fashion Week is Greenville’s premier fashion event and includes an emerging designer competition, Greenville’s Top Model competition, as well as featuring numerous local designers, models and dancers while also featuring more well-known fashion luminaries.
The first label displayed on the runway was Any Old Iron, a grungy western label that has been worn by such celebrities as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. The outfits, worn by women ranging from late teens to mid-50s, were styled with accessories such as cowboy hats and cowboy boots and often had some form of lace or sparkles.
Greenville’s 2023 emerging designer competition winner Lauren Gibson’s The Rhinestoned Gypsy was the second label to take the runway, and it wowed the audience with a glamorous modern take on Western fashion. The designs were bright and covered with bling and fringe.
“We are very yeehaw and have deep roots in trailer trash,” Gibson exclaimed to the crowd when asked about the background of her collection.
Maximalist is the only word to describe Laura Citron’s designs. The outfits, studded with thousands of sparkles, were so bright that they would have shone even if the runway lights had been turned off. Citron’s designs have been featured in Cosmopolitan, Wall Street Journal, Vogue and Vanity Fair, and they have been worn by Lainey Wilson and numerous other celebrities. The models took a unique approach to the runway with wide smiles and spunky dance moves, prompting the audience to dance along.
Greenville Fashion Week partnered with Safe Harbor this year to fight domestic violence in South Carolina. The house lights were turned down as a video explaining the organization’s goals played on the big screen. This past Wednesday, Greenville Fashion Week hosted a charity dinner to raise funds for Safe Harbor.
The emerging designer competition allows up-and-coming designers to showcase their talents and compete for a chance to be able to display an entire collection of their work in Greenville Fashion Week 2025. This year’s competitors were Kathy Harris, Jon Pierce, Michelle Parisou, Luko Marion, Febryanti Murphy and Elizabeth McNamara. Jon Pierce, who also competed in 2023, earned the 2024 emerging designer title.
Greenville Fashion Week’s Top Model contest provides an opportunity for a group of talented young women to showcase their talents on the runway and in personal interviews while competing for the title of Greenville’s Top Model. The winning model will have the opportunity to travel and be a part of numerous events in the fashion industry throughout 2024.
Before announcing this year’s Top Model, 2023 winner Hannah Pearson took an emotional farewell walk down the runway to Taylor Swift’s “Long Live” as a slideshow full of her experiences from the past year played behind her.
“I had fun at the end of the day, and you meet friends, and you become a role model,” Pearson said when asked what the most important moment of her stint as Top Model had been. The model added that she felt she’d “made it” when she saw her picture on a Times Square billboard.
Isabella Covington was announced as the 2024 Top Model. As her name was announced, the other contestants raced down the runway to embrace and congratulate Covington in a touching display of camaraderie. After sharing hugs and tears, the remaining 12 women cheered from the back of the runway as Covington walked down the runway for the first time as Greenville’s Top Model 2024.
After a short break to crown Greenville and Anderson bar UP on the Roof with the Top Cocktail award, The Poinsett Bride presented a stunning collection of wedding dresses ranging from traditional to new colors and floral designs. The models ranged in size and age, showing that the collection has something for every bride.
All the way from New York City, Alex Foxworth displayed her new collection, Salacious Fruit. The collection stems from Asian cinema and focuses on sustainable fashion by using upcycled kimonos. The models wore masks to cover their faces and carried props such as swords and nunchucks. The collection was displayed to the audience alongside dark, eerie music, similar to that found in Asian cinema.
The last collection to take the runway was Tygerianlace. If you’re looking for maximalist glittery designs, this is the collection for you.
Dillard’s also showcased a spring collection and a swim collection with models of different ages, races and genders, showing its diverse and affordable designs can be a fit for anyone.
This year’s Greenville gown was designed by Yelena Exclusive Atelier, and lived up to the theme of “in bloom” with a floral blue dress adorned with copious amounts of beautiful tulle.
Information on how to participate in the 2025 event can be found at the Greenville Fashion Week website. There are openings for models, designers, dancers, hair stylists, makeup artists and more. 2024 was Greenville Fashion Week’s seventh year, and the event keeps getting bigger and better. Fashion in Greenville is truly in bloom!
