Park Avenue Fashion Week 2015 Events

Park Avenue Fashion Week is officially in full swing, and I’ve been having an absolute ball soaking up the local fashion scene with my friends! While I gave a full overview of this week’s event in my PAFW15 outfit post, I wanted to take you behind the scenes at my favorite Park Avenue Fashion Week events. Keep reading to see all of the crazy shenanigans that the Orlando blogging crew got into at Park Avenue Fashion Week’s Emerging Designers Competition, Inaugural Kick-Off Brunch, and Fashion of Cocktails. P.S. Don’t forget to get $15 off your ticket for Saturday’s show here with the code PAFW15!

PAFW15 Emerging Designers Competition

Each year, Park Avenue Fashion Week holds a contest for emerging designers to win a chance to walk down the runway at the main show. The top ten finalists were featured in the Emerging Designer Competition, and each designer had a chance to showcase three of their best designs at the event! I attended this event with Stephanie, Shannon, David, and Tonya, and we had the best time watching the local designers and enjoying the beautiful fall weather. In fact, Stephanie, Shannon, and I may have ended up having a little too much fun. We danced the night away and kind of forgot that 100 people were looking at us. Oops! If you’d like to watch us thoroughly embarrass ourselves, check out this video!

The event featured absolutely amazing designs, and I was thrilled to see Carolyn, one of my former dance students, strut her stuff on the runway in a stunning black and white gown! The Emerging Designers Competition was such a fabulous event, and I cannot wait to see the top five finalists grace the stage this Saturday.

PAFW15 Inaugural Kick-Off Brunch

This year, Park Avenue Fashion Week launched its first Inaugural Kick-Off Brunch, and I have to say it was absolutely perfect. The event was held at the incredibly beautiful Alfond Inn and featured all of my favorite things: good friends, good food, and great fashion!

From left to right: Sweet Tea with Madi, Upbeat Soles, The Diary of A Debutante, Me

In addition to a fabulous meal, the brunch included a nod to one of Central Florida’s most famous philanthropists, Harriet Lake. A portion of her legendary hat collection was available at the event, so we naturally had to take a few (ok, a dozen or two) photos to showcase Harriet’s hats!

And then there was the hunky violin man. Our table kindly referred to him as Thor, but every single woman at the event was taking photos and/or videos of his performance. In addition to his manly good looks, he had an incredible talent for creating modern violin pieces!

From left to right: Me, Upbeat Soles, Annie A to Z, Metanoia Living, Orlando Fashion Girl, Mod’s Manor, Diary of A Debutante, The Shoe Maven

The Inaugural Kick-Off Brunch couldn’t have gone better. Every single detail was perfect, and I had the best time catching up with the Orlando blogging crew!

Fashion of Cocktails

From left to right: Orlando Fashion Girl, The Shoe Maven, Mod’s Manor, If The Choo Fits, Me

The most recent Park Avenue Fashion Week event was this Monday’s Fashion of Cocktails bartending competition at Park Social. This amazing event brought together bartenders from local venues to showcase their mixology skills, and guests were allowed to taste test each restaurant’s signature cocktail. Fashion of Cocktails was the perfect mix of fashion and fun. The retro chic decor of Park Social provided a fabulous backdrop for the night’s festivities, and the DJ kept the dance jams pumping all night long!

At the end of the night, Park Social was crowned the winner by the one and only Michelle Marks from Shel Marks PR!

And speaking of Michelle…I’d like to give a huge THANK YOU to Michelle and her team at Shel Marks PR for putting together an incredible line-up of Park Avenue Fashion Week events! I have had the best time at each and every event, and I know that this Saturday’s show will be a huge hit! If you live in Central Florida, I highly encourage you to attend the main event of Park Avenue Fashion Week this Saturday. Tickets are still available, and I have a special discount code for you! Use the code PAFW15 to receive $15 off your ticket!

All photography by Winter Park Photography!