Doctors, cancer survivors and local celebrities modeled blue jackets to highlight the importance of early cancer detection.
ST. LOUIS — On Sunday night, a local organization used fashion to raise awareness for prostate cancer. Gent Men’s Fashion Week partnered with the Siteman Cancer Center for its Blue Jacket Runway Show at Energizer Park.
Doctors, cancer survivors and local celebrities modeled the jackets on the runway in collaboration with the Saint Louis Fashion Fund to highlight the importance of early cancer detection.
It was the 10th anniversary of Gent.Stl and its multi-day menswear event based in St. Louis, culminating in a runway show hosted for the second year at the newly renamed arena home to St. Louis CITY SC, who helped organized the event.
“I used to be a producer for St. Louis fashion week, and there was a lack of menswear, but we have a lot of local really talented designers,” co-founder of Gent Men’s Fashion Week Dwight Carter said.
Lindenwood University fashion students also got the chance to show off their work during the show.
“We’re promoting St. Louis,” Carter said.
Hoping to potentially bring more fashion opportunities and life lessons to St. Louis this year or next was New York City-based designer Terry Singh.
Singh is renowned for his fresh take on modern masculinity in the fashion industry. One of the many motifs explored in the collaboration across cancer researchers, fashionistas and St. Louis advocates.
“I didn’t know if anyone would be interested in what I do in creating it, but I knew I was going to take it on tour in terms of a presentation,” Singh said. “St. Louis is the heart of America. It is the center. It is historic.”
Learning from Singh backstage in real time, Lindenwood University fashion students also got the chance to show off their work during the Feb. 16 show.
“People leave this city and other cities with vast educational systems and come to New York, which means the talent is already here. ” Singh said. “If I can bring new ideas and cultivate a universal mind because I did the traveling, then I’m doing a service to this amazing country and these amazing people.”
