Oklahoma Fashion Alliance: “Is The Earth Just A Body Too?”
Artisan Hall
February 24, 2024
Think you don’t belong in a room full of cool kids? If the room is being run by the Oklahoma Fashion Alliance, go ahead and think again. My anxiety about showing up to a fashion show as what you might call a “scene elder” got obliterated when I read the following in OFA’s welcome email for “Is The Earth Just A Body Too?”: “If you don’t have an outfit already picked out, some inspiration from us is: wear something that tells your story.”
That, I could do. The empowerment in those words is a huge part of the mission of OFA, which formally launched just over a year ago and presented its third show cycle recently at Artisan Hall, a still under-construction community space inside a gigantic old church on the north end of Kendall Whittier.
There was a long line of people waiting under the full moon before the doors even opened, looking in the windows at a gorgeously lit interior with projection-mapped ripples on the ceiling, designed by Logan Sours’ Dreamspace Lab. As we peeked in, models peeked out at us from a window frame high above the entrance. Almost an hour after the show was supposed to start, door personnel were still bringing people in, through an entryway piled with ancient, dusty Christmas decorations and bustling with models, guests, OFA team members, and volunteers.
With soothing sounds of Bach and Jan Garbarek spilling through the speakers, the waiting became almost part of the event. The church’s pews gradually filled with folks feeling themselves in DIY fits that could have gone on the runway themselves. It’s not often that I get to experience the joy of people-watching on this scale in Tulsa. Even as the hour grew late, I was content to sit in my pew, one story among many, taking in the energy building in the room. (I’m very here for Tulsa’s current reclamation of church spaces for collective creative joy.)