Aspen Cares hosts its annual theatrical fashion show on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at Belly Up Aspen. The one-night event is a fundraiser for HeadQuarters, which “engages, educates, and empowers people to build and enjoy Mental Fitness.”
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
After a four-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the Aspen Cares Fashion Show will take The Belly Up stage on Wednesday, March 20, at 9 p.m.
“This is our 10th year producing the show. We had a four-year hiatus due to COVID and the fact that Ramona Bruland and I (who produce the event together) both had babies,” said co-founder and producer Katy Parnello. “We were hesitant at first, like ‘Are people gonna remember us?’ But as soon as we announced it, there has been such an amazing response from the community, past models, top supporters, and top designers who are involved. We’re so excited by how embracing of the event Aspen has been.”
Parnello, who has a background in performance and fashion, said that she and Bruland founded the event in 2011 to raise money for young non-profits that may not have the backing of more established organizations. She and Bruland had worked at a similar event before relocating to Aspen, and the duo wanted to see if a similar fundraiser would work here.
Initially, the event raised money for Aspen Hope Center, which provides an array of mental health services, such as crisis intervention, suicide prevention, mobile crisis response, therapy, a confidential 24/7 HopeLine, a robust school-based program, and referrals to appropriate providers.
“We first partnered with the Hope Center, which at the time when our partnership started, they were really small and very new,” Parnello said. “Now, after years of working with the Hope Center, they have grown so much and have a great donor base, so this year, we are partnering with a new organization. After a few different interviews and meetings that we had, we loved Headquarters, which was formerly known as Aspen Strong.”
To that end, this year’s beneficiary is local non-profit HeadQuarters, which advocates for mental fitness. Its mission is to engage, educate, and empower people to pay attention to their mental fitness as much as their physical fitness. The non-profit focuses on early intervention and believe it is the most effective way to prevent mental health fatalities like suicides.
“It’s important for people to pay attention to mental health in this community,” she said. “There can be a challenge when you are somewhere that’s as beautiful as Aspen and very focused on having fun and enjoying life. When you are going through a struggle, sometimes it can be hard to find someone to talk to because everyone is enjoying themselves so much. And maybe you don’t want to bring someone down or bring someone into this world or the trauma that you’re having. So helping people find different ways to function and cope with everyday stressors or even when bigger stressors come in – just giving people the tools to be able to navigate those things – is crucial.”
The fashion show itself is a high-energy, theatrical extravaganza that showcases 25 designers, many of whom are from the Roaring Fork Valley. The models are all cast and plucked from the local community, so audiences never know who they might see on stage.
“We call it a theatrical fashion show because instead of it just being a straight runway, we incorporate dance, movement, and story into the piece,” Parnello said. “For the models, we love local talent. Some have high-performance backgrounds and are amazing dancers and performers; some of them have never performed before in their lives. You might see your lawyer, or your friends, or the guy who works at the coffee shop on stage; so it’s super fun.”
On Friday, March 22, Aspen Cares will also host a pop-up sample sale party where audiences can buy items from the runway to support Headquarters.
“I hope audiences walk away thinking ‘That was the most fun I’ve had, ‘” she said. And I want them to go home and reflect on things they saw in the show and how it might touch them and how it might relate to their life or relate to people’s lives around them and take away the fact that it’s okay to talk about your mental state.”
For more information and tickets: aspencares.org