By Katherine M. Brown
The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. Fort Worth Metropolitan Chapter hosted Fashioned for Royalty: Where Luxury Meets Lifestyle on Saturday evening, March 1st. It was held at the Oaks Event Center in Burleson, Texas.
According to the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. Fort Worth Metropolitan Chapter President Mia Johnson, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Incorporated is an advocacy organization. Johnson says that “their mission is to advocate on behalf of black women and girls, to promote gender equity, and leadership development in the areas of health, education, and economic empowerment”.
Johnson says that Fashioned for Royalty: Where Luxury Meets Lifestyle serves as their annual scholarship fundraiser.
“It is where we celebrate the brilliance and the magnificence of young women,” says Johnson. “There are their skills, their talents, and we’re able to raise funds to be able to give them scholarships so that they can further their education.”
The purpose of the event is to raise funds for scholarships, but it is also when one woman receives a special award.
“Today a very deserving woman is going to receive the Dr. Opal Lee Advocacy Award,” says Johnson. “Dr. Opal Lee is a member of our chapter as well, but we did create an award in her honor. We want to honor people in the community that are doing things in similar tandem as Dr. Opal Lee does and advocating in the community. We’ll be also awarding that. We’re giving out two scholarships, and still raising funds to continue to do this every year.”
The organization wants to help the young women pay for college.
“We are strictly here to raise funds and to be able to continue to donate money into their scholarship funds, so that every year we’re able to award scholarships. We do hope to increase our scholarships every year,” says Johnson. “We want to be able to assist. We know that going to college is expensive and not just your tuition, but the expenses in regards to just regular books and technology fees and meal plans and things of that nature. College is very expensive. The young ladies who receive the scholarships are essentially the benefactors of this particular event.”
Johnson says that the organization wants to do more to help.
“We’re going to continue to do this every year to continue to raise funds. We want to continue to be able to increase not just the amount of the awards, but we want to increase the number of awards that we give. This year we’re giving two, and then we’re going to reassess and see what we can do next year.”
The event is the organization’s second one, though it will be annual moving forward.
“The one we held last year was also a fashion show, but my goal was to continue to increase the visibility and to increase the actual event every year,” says Johnson. “That’s what we have done here today. I’m very proud of what we’ve done today.”
Johnson noticed that the events she saw happening started to all look the same, so a fashion show was something different they could do.
“What I’ve noticed is that there are certain looks,” says Johnson. The events are starting to kind of look the same, so to speak – not that there’s anything wrong with how any other organization or church or what decides to hold an event, but we want it to be just different. We see a lot of galas.
We see the masquerade balls. We see the sneaker balls. We see a lot of some of the similar events and we wanted to do something very different, and bring not just visibility to the organization, but to the city of Fort Worth.”
Entertainment for the night included various couples dancing, poetry, and a fashion show. The fashion show showcased designs by kish|me, Soula, and F&L Signature Fedoras. Food was also served throughout the evening.
The “Outstanding Academic Merit” scholarship recipient was Nevaeh Caldwell. Ms. Caldwell will be attending Spelman College in the fall. The “Empowering Through Education” scholarship recipient was Madison Davis. Ms. Davis will be attending Louisiana State University in the fall.
The Dr. Opal Lee Advocacy Award was presented to Commissioner Lisa Simmons. Although Commissioner Simmons couldn’t attend the event herself, someone else accepted the award on her behalf.
During the night, guests could also buy products from various vendors in another room. One business was Peter Piper Prints, which sells custom design items, such as shirts, aprons, banners, and hats.
Another brand was Lamik Beauty, which is a clean and non-toxic makeup line made in Texas. Another brand was Nugget Pop Art, which sells paintings of black people and inspirational art. The business Bougie Cowgirl was present at the event, and it sells wine and candles. The brand Build-A-Scent was also present, and it sells custom fragrance.
Johnson says that it’s important to keep pouring into the youth.
“I think that right now – in the climate that we are in – I think it’s essentially very important for us to continue to keep our foot on the gas and continue to pour into our youth,” says Johnson.
“We can’t let up. We can’t stop. We can’t allow any outside influences to take our attention away from the goal. This event – we have a goal in mind. Outside of just this particular event we want to make sure that we are visible in the community so that they know that we are here. We are a staple in the community and we are standing with the community and advocating in those areas – health, education, economic empowerment, public policy – that is what we do and we’ll continue to do so.”
To learn more, visit http://ncbwfortworth.org/.
