Omaha Fashion Week’s Spring 2023 season of fashion and nostalgia continued with an inspiring night filled with designs by high schoolers, a creative careers panel discussion, and an ode to Metropolitan Community College for helping guide young creatives to careers they’ll love.

Omaha Fashion Week celebrates 15 years of runway showcases during the De Ponte Spring 2023 season. De Ponte is Latin for "from the bridge" in honor of Omaha Fashion Week's start under the Jones Street bridge to glamorous celebrations at the Omaha Design Center, and everything in between. The atmosphere of the night reflected the streets of Omaha and rave culture in the 1990’s. Paintings by Dan Richters took over the space that were originally created for actual raves in the 90’s!

Guests arrived to the Omaha Design Center and rushed to take photos by Hapis Imagery on the Milan Laser Red Carpet, and enjoyed music from DJ Short-T. Live virtual graffiti art was a mesmerizing addition to the pre-show entertainment, also by Dan Richters.

We witnessed the beginning of many young creatives’ journey into design during our Metropolitan Community College Student Showcase. Over the years, many designers that become regular Omaha Fashion Week designers start as high school students. It is always so inspiring to see the young generations of designers debut on our runway. We just can’t help but envision them as future Emerging, Featured, and eventually Headlining designers.

Joey Safchik, of KETV hosted our show, and brought such a bright energy to the stage. She was styled by the lovely, Buf Reynolds, with clothing from her personal vintage collection.

We kicked off the show with looks from our very own Omaha Fashion Camp program, followed by students from Westside High School, Nebraska Family, Career & Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), Duchesne Academy, Joslyn's Kent Bellows Mentoring Program.

We also took a moment to recognize our amazing apprentices from Metropolitan Community College that help us throughout the year. They participate in Omaha Fashion Week by contributing the the Front Row series on our blog, designer recruitment, live event management, and they even designed our brand new merch line for this season! We absolutely could not do this without them!

Left to Right: Zeke, Kylie, Monika, Taliyah (not pictured, Nita)

During intermission, house music kept the energy up and attendees enjoyed looking through their Omaha FASHION Magazine.

We returned to the runway with our Creative Careers Panel featuring Raven Fox, Heather Hooton, Keith Rodger, Faron Medhi, and Alyssa Dilts. Our esteemed panel answered questions from our producer, Brook Hudson, and members of the audience. Raven had wise words about finding your personal story and letting it lead your path; Heather gave advice on knowing your worth as a creative entrepreneur; Keith shared his views on surrounding yourself with creative people and exploring your potential without limits; Faron emphasized the importance of mental health and self care; and Alyssa talked about how imperative finding a supportive community is.

Then the lights dimmed and guests awaited the next segment of collections from Omaha South High Magnet School, Lincoln Southeast High School, and 4-H.