Photos: Fashion Talks Celebrated its Fifth Anniversary With a Runway Show at the Cleveland History Center

In the pre-pandemic days of local fashion, Aimon Ali, a producer and stylist originally from Toronto, hosted a bare-bones show at The Madison in Midtown with a clear mission in mind: prove Cleveland could be host to a wellspring of couture while also promoting design talent not always front and center on the runway.

Five years later, Ali hosted her half-decade anniversary of Fashion Talks in the basement level of the Cleveland History Center with a runway exhibition set against the backdrop of vintage Chevys and 1910s Packards. It was the first in the series for which Ali received a trove of grant funding as a newly-established nonprofit.

And the night definitely showed the promise of her vision. Seven designers—Next In Fashion, Cleveland Consignment, Indy Sewing Studio, Nomia, Dillards, SW and ARTE Regina—displayed a range of formal and semi-formal wears, from avant garde ball gowns to summer-y men’s button-downs, through the talent of 41 models.

“It’s been incredible to watch the Fashion Talks Runway grow from a grassroots gathering to a full-scale production,” Ali told Scene, one that brought “together creative entrepreneurs and students, emerging and established designers from across the country and beyond.”