I’ll have more to say about the event in my City Talk column on Tuesday in the Savannah Morning News, so here I’m just posting some of my photos. I was seated in a great spot near the center of the runway, so I was able to get some shots from a variety of angles.

And I took a lot of photos, so this is just a quick collection that showcases the diversity of Savannah’s boutiques and of the work of independent designers who took part. I don’t know if I’ll do another post of photos here, but, sometime later in the week, I will certainly post many more to the Savannah Unplugged Facebook page. (“Likes” appreciated!)

Some of the models were easier to shoot than others — some moved a little more quickly and some didn’t stay in the center of the runway. But it looked like there were a dozen or more photographers well-placed to get great shots, and of course dozens more attendees were taking photos from their seats. I’m anxious to spend a little time exploring the images.

Anyway, enjoy these. I’ll be posting more either here or on Facebook in the coming days.

The big runway show, scheduled for Forsyth Park on May 1st, will for the first time include the work of local designers. Last year’s show at the Lucas Theatre included collections from participating retailers, but the showcase for independent designers was the following night at Dollhouse Productions. I enjoyed both events, but the separation seemed sort of unnecessary, arbitrary, and artificial.

The Savannah Fashion Week 2014 participating retailers include BleuBelle (owner Heather Burge is President of SFW 2014), Custard Boutique, J. Paige, James Gunn, Red Clover Boutique, Sara Jane Children’s Boutique, Satchel, Trunk 13, and Zia Boutique.

And here are this year’s participating designers (quoting today’s press release):

• Brooke Atwood presenting clothes from the second season of her Brooke Atwood collection — “modern day western wear meets downtown chic rock-n-roll”
• Catherine Fain showcasing her 2014 Spring Ramey Rhodes line inspired by a ‘jet-set’ attitude with pieces that are easily packable and wearable
• Cate Lyon, owner of Cate Lyon Studio
• Faith Thornburg, winner of ELLE Magazine’s Fashion Next Award, showing her bridal line inspired by the “romance of Savannah”
• Emily Bargeron showing pieces from her Mamie Ruth collection
• Kathryn Hayes presenting items from her Fall 2014 and Resort 2014 Mix Julep line, the later of which is inspired by the “steel magnolia”
• Nicole Edge, owner of Kleon’s Sewing Studio in Savannah, whose line is 60’s mod inspired
• Troy Allen, Savannah Arts Academy student and winner of the 2014 Junk2Funk fashion show, who’ll be showing his collection of sportswear inspired by ‘Cowboys vs. Indians’
• featured designer April Johnston, “Project Runway” and “Project Runway All-Stars” contestant, presenting her Mangled Courtesan line and who promises “a lot of surprise in this collection”

Here are a handful of shots I took from my seat at last year’s runway show at the Lucas:

And here are some shots from the Savannah Independent Designers show at Dollhouse:

From the event description on Facebook:

SID (Savannah Independent Designers) is a showcase featuring the latest works and collections from a selected group of designers and jewelry makers living and working in Savannah Georgia. As a new addition to Savannah Fashion Week 2013, SID will wrap up the week with looks from Mangled Courtesan, Brooke Atwood, Mamie Ruth, Aureus by Troy Allen, aRe carnes, Brazen Design, and Meredith Anne-Sutton.

And here are the event sponsors:

Dollface by Jules, Make Up Forever, Keratin Complex, RISE Model Management, Towne Salon, Connect Savannah, Digital Envy, Creative Approach, Kauffman & Heinz, Pavilion Productions, and The Sparetime.

Most (or maybe all?) of the models are from RISE Model Management.

This is a collection of 40 images that I liked best, in part based on image quality. It was a short runway, some of the models were moving pretty fast, the light changed at several points in the brief stretch, and the models had to negotiate some short stairs. The effect of all this in the room was pretty awesome, but it made it tricky to get ideal shots of each look.

I hope someone will come along and post something saying which ones are from which designers. I will update here when I’ve got all the looks firmly identified.

Also, I have a whole lot more photos that are as good or almost as good as these. I will post a larger album to my Savannah Unplugged Facebook page in the near future, but I can also be reached via billdawers [at] comcast [dot] net.

Click for larger versions or click below to open as a CoolIris gallery, which I think is the best way to view these. (And, yes, that’s a dog headed up the stairs as a model is headed down.)

I’ll probably post an even larger set to my Savannah Unplugged Facebook page in the next few days. (Additional “likes” appreciated. A strong Facebook presence has been and will be critical to this site’s success.)

I’m going to say more about the fashion show and Savannah Fashion Week in my City Talk column on Tuesday, so I’m not going to say much here.

I took all these from my seat in the 4th row, four seats off the aisle. It was a great spot for watching, but you’ll see that relatively few of these photos include feet.

Also, I found the lighting in the sweet spot of the runway a little hot for good photos. The fashions had a lot of light colors, a number of the models were very light-skinned, and my camera was picking up an unusual amount of yellow in the light. For some of the darker-skinned models, the effect was quite nice. The combined issues were actually all conducive to getting pictures of the bold jewelry from Zia Boutique, which was displayed against colorful but relatively dark backgrounds comprised of the models’ skin and bikinis. Some of the looks just weren’t conducive to good shots, for me at least.

Anyway, I’ve arbitrarily limited the size of this album to the 40 that I like best. I’ll post updates here when my column comes out and when more of the photos are posted to Facebook. You can click to enlarge and then scroll. Enjoy.

ORIGINAL POST:
I took a fair number of photos tonight at the Lucas Theatre during the fashion show that wrapped up Savannah Fashion Week.

It was my first time attending the event, and I’ll have more to say about it either here at Savannah Unplugged or in one of my upcoming Savannah Morning News columns (Thursday events are too late for me to write about for Sunday).

But here are a handful of unedited shots from tonight’s show. I’ll post more on Friday or Saturday. By the way, I took both my old D40 and my newer D7000, which explains why these may seem to be in random order at the moment. I’ll try to recreate the timeline when I do a full post.

Congrats to all for the talent and energy on display tonight.

Much more in a day or two.