OC Fashion Week begins on March 23 knitting yarn

The 14th season of OC Fashion Week (OCFW), a leading trade show for the who’s who of luxury fashion and design in California, will begin on March 23, 2019 with an opening day runway fashion design competition featuring seven top-emerging fashion designers from New York to OC. Celebrity Cruises is the Official Red Carpet Sponsor of OC Fashion Week.

As the official Red Carpet sponsor, Celebrity Cruises rolls out the Red Carpet for an A-list crowd as Front-Row guests await a line-up of 5-star collections.

Kathryn Marino, CEO of the five-day OC Fashion Week, says, “OC Fashion Week is an international trade show for emerging fashion designers, retail entrepreneurs, small and large business owners as well as digital retail startups. OCFW’s mission is to dedicate its support for fashion designers and the retail business and its advocacy for fashion tourism in the luxury market of Orange County, California. Orange County’s luxury apparel sales are currently 37 billion dollars, and continue to supersede retail sales of neighboring markets and even some of the top five leading fashion capitals.”

OCFW will be hosted at a new event venue on March 23, with an all-new designer competition presented by Celebrity Cruises. AV Irvine, known as OC's hottest destination for events, will host the opening day runway catwalk, which will feature a lineup of emerging fashion designers for a one-of-a-kind Cruise Collection competition. The runway show will open with a special performance by Dark Rabbit Dance wear by Rowan Burke.

The cruise wear theme for the designers is based on Celebrity Cruises’ new luxury Celebrity Edge and Celebrity Flora ships and is titled “Celebrity Cruises Luxury Collection,” using this design inspiration video. The emerging designers from fashion capitols of New York to Orange County are tasked with creating unique takes on cruise wear that capture the travel brand’s inspirational lifestyle and adventurous spirit as part of the design competition.

Emerging designers competing and their respective style inspiration assignments include Ugochi Iwuaba’s design inspiration from Celebrity Edge in its entirety, Celebrity Cruises’ revolutionary new ship that is poised to change the way that travelers experience the world; Jamielle Rankine’s design inspiration from Eden, the tri-level food and beverage destination that offers sensory experiences completely wrapped in glass and including outdoor and indoor areas for enjoying experiential meals and cocktails onboard Celebrity Edge; Jonathan Jimenez’s design inspiration from The Magic Carpet, the world’s first cantilevered venue at sea that travels 13 stories that transforms into a new and exciting venue depending on which deck it’s positioned on Celebrity Edge; and Dawn Sunflower’s design inspiration from Celebrity Edge’s Iconic Suite, new Edge-exclusive Suite Class category featuring more than 2,500 square feet of space and serving as the highest level of suites available on Celebrity Edge.

The winning designer of the “Celebrity Cruises Luxury Collection” will receive a Celebrity Cruises trophy, an Alaskan cruise aboard Celebrity Cruises, and an opportunity to showcase in the Athens Xclusive Designer’s Week in Greece.

“We’re excited to embrace some of the country’s emerging designers,” said Cynthia Rose Ponzi, Celebrity Cruises’ regional marketing manager. “In the past, our fashion competitions have focused solely on student designers, but this is a first-time for us to take leading designers’ work to a whole new level commensurate with the launch of our latest Celebrity Edge ship. We are honoured to kick off such a great catwalk event. It's an exciting time to be innovative.”