CHARLOTTE — The 5th Annual ArtPop Upcycled Fashion Show and Fundraiser is coming up this September, and it’ll be an especially big day for local artist, Joann McDaniel.
ArtPop Street Gallery is a nonprofit focused on making art more accessible. The fashion show will feature designs using reused and recycled materials.
McDaniel and her husband own the art studio -- Hands Create -- in the Arboretum. She created a picture, “There’s No Place Like Home.”
The artwork was one of twenty that ended up on ArtPop billboards across the country last year. Now, a fashion designer, Will White, is taking the actual billboard that was here in Charlotte and turning it into an outfit for the fashion show.
“This annual event puts a spotlight on local art while keeping 13,400+ square feet of vinyl out of landfills,” ArtPop’s Wendy Hickey said. “Proceeds make more community art experiences possible while supporting local creatives.”
“I’m super excited. Super, super excited,” she said. “I talked to him on the phone about the story behind those five ladies who live in a small town in Isolabona, Italy, where I used to go back to every single year. So I met all of them. One of them is not with us anymore. But the other four called themselves the ‘Divas of Isolabona’ and they all think they’re famous,” she said.
She says she doesn’t know what the outfit will look like, so she’ll be surprised along with everyone else.
“I am hoping that he will include the red shoes because the center lady has Dorothy’s red sparkly shoes on. So I’m hoping he’ll incorporate that idea of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, those sparkly red shoes, but more in a couture upcycle fashion. But I don’t know,” she said.
The fashion show is Saturday, Sept. 6, at Blume Studios from 6 to 9 p.m. for general admission and 5 to 9 p.m. for VIP.
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