Fashion trendsetters know a lot about fashion shows. They feature bone-thin models wearing haute couture designs and expressions of frustrated boredom. rice field.

There’s a typical fashion show, then there’s an inside-out fashion show. The rules are different. Design your own clothes. Sashay going down the runway. Strut your load while posing to the music. be happy. Be attractive. Redefining what fashion means and who can make and wear it.

That’s what artists do at Huntsville’s Inside Out Studio. This is a free art studio for adults with developmental disabilities. Located in the Row Mill, a historic factory building repurposed as an art center for 152 artists (ceramists, painters, sculptors, food creators), the studio creates art and sometimes sells it to the public. We work with people who

Sherry Broyles, executive director of Inside Out Studio, said the fundraiser’s fashion show, which had to be canceled for two years due to COVID, will now take place on October 22, 2-4. increase. Sandwich board signs will be installed in the Lowe Mill parking lot at 2211 Seminole Drive to direct people to the second floor runway.

This free event is co-sponsored by Phoenix, a non-profit organization that helps clients find and keep jobs.

“Our artists are different. They’re not constrained by the usual conventions of clothing and style, they’re trying to impress people with their wardrobe. They’re free from all that,” Broyles said. say.

“This studio challenges expectations of what people with disabilities can do. There is one runway. Inside Out artists walk alongside other Lowe Mill artists and designers. The idea is to merge artists with inside-out artists.”

“They are all together.”

The artist decides what to wear. Their imagination is the trigger for costume design. Katie loves sea creatures and designs jellyfish costumes. Mary is the great queen of Egypt. Cody makes a Walt Disney costume on his work table.

The last fashion show featured the artist walking the runway as the Queen of Hearts in a fabric dress and playing cards. Another wore bold stripes on his jacket and top hat and became a circus master. Mr. Broyles is said to be a hand-stitching assistant, but the artist himself comes up with ideas for costumes.

“We don’t think we know more about the designs that artists choose than they do,” says Broyles. “They are in charge of it.”

I am also in charge of walking. Some practice runway walks in the hallway just outside the studio. An artist slides down the runway in an electric wheelchair. Others may walk with Broyles if that’s what they want to do.

Beer and wine are served, and Dragon’s Forge Cafe offers non-alcoholic drinks for the occasion. T-shirts are printed on the spot.

The beat of R&B music enlivened the line of people who came to see the last fashion show. At the end of the performance, the audience gave a long standing applause. Artists mingled with the crowd. Some bowed.

“At the end of the day, we know they really did something,” says Broyles. “And they did it in their own way.”