Rightfully Sewn, a subsidiary of Alphapointe, is hosting the latest event in its FUTURE FASHION series on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at Little Theatre.
Presented by The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, FUTURE FASHION is a night focused on the future of fashion in Kansas City. For this year’s event, Pamela Lucas, owner & fashion designer of the House Of Pamela Renee, moderates a Q&A panel featuring Kechena Richardson and Stella Hankins. Richardson is the owner & designer of Kechena Designs and an educator at Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts, while Hankins is the owner and designer of Bella Bonita Designs in Wichita, Kan.
Following the Q&A portion of the event, keynote speaker Brandon McWilliams will address the audience. McWilliams the new associate professor of costume design at the UMKC Conservatory and a wonderful addition to the Kansas City community.
The VIP reception is from 5:30-6:30 p.m. with the program beginning at 6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be provided and attendees will have the opportunity to interact with industry professionals from around the Kansas City area, including the event panelists and keynote speaker.
For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.
Participant Bios
Brandon McWilliams
Brandon holds a BFA in Theatre Studies from The University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in Costume Design from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. His CMU design credits include The Chairs, Sideshow the musical, and the internationally acclaimed production of Nathan the Wise with the late Mladen Kiselov. He has designed costumes for the stage regionally for the past fifteen years and is the recipient of the Zelma H. Weisfeld USITT Costume Design Award, two-time recipient of the Elizabeth Shrader Kimberly Award in Costume Design and the Texas Educational Theatre Association’s Founder’s Scholarship in Design.
Brandon’s work in theatrical design, as displayed at the Prague Quadrennial ’07 & the Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, has been hailed as the Olympics of theatrical design. He has taught at Carnegie Mellon University, Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Louisiana State University, and recently headed the costume program at Texas State University.
Pamela Lucas
Pamela Lucas is the owner & fashion designer of the House Of Pamela Renee’, which specializes in custom special occasion wear for men and women. She is a retired secondary and post-secondary instructor in the Apparel and Textile arena, who first learned how to sew in the KCMO school district. She received her Bachelor’s Degree at the esteemed Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Currently she is a full time fashion designer/entrepreneur. In addition to custom designs and participating in Kansas City Fashion Week, Pamela also started the online Academy of Patternmaking and Draping. She also holds a special place in our hearts at Rightfully Sewn, where she founded our academy for seamstress training!
Kechena Richardson
Kechena Richardson is the owner & designer of Kechena Designs and an educator at Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts. The inception of the Kechena Designs brand started just a few months after she graduated from Missouri State University back in 2013. Since then she has opened her own showroom and has participated in various fashion shows like Kansas City Fashion Week, Chicago Couture Fashion Week, DC Fashion Week, and more. In addition to designing textiles that are produced by JoAnn Fabrics, she was named JoAnn Fabrics “Sewist of the Year”.
Stella Hankins
Stella Hankins is the owner and designer of Bella Bonita Designs in Wichita, Kansas. She studied at the Savannah College of Art and Design as well as Parsons School of Design. When starting Bella Bonita Designs, she had one thought in mind, to create a company that incorporates her love of fashion and recovery. She is proud to say she is a recovering addict and uses Bella Bonita to give back to local charities that focus on recovery and helping people who struggle with addiction. Through this work, she was the recipient of the “KWCH 12 Helping Hands” grant this year.