The Gamma Alpha Sigma Chapter of the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. hosted the 49th annual Ebony Fashion Fair at the Fox Theater in downtown Bakersfield on Wednesday, April 4.
The show presented latest fashions of the 2006-2007 seasons, featuring ensembles and haute couture gowns by famous designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Issey Miyake, Nina Ricci, Christian Lacroix, Yves Saint Laurent and many more.
Both male and female models strutted down the runway donning fashionable threads from posh streetwear to lavish gowns and tuxedos.
The show originally began in 1956 in an effort to raise funds for the Women’s Auxiliary of Flint-Goodrich Hospital in New Orleans and since then, every other year when the show tours, 50 percent of the show’s earnings go to a worthy cause. The Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, hand in hand with The Ebony Fashion Fair, has helped to raise funds for sickle cell and mental health organizations in past years, and this year the funds will be going toward scholarships for locals.
Tickets were sold at $40 per person. Since the early ’60s the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority has been involved in the community and especially in promoting The Ebony Fashion Fair in Bakersfield in order to serve the community.
At a time when blacks weren’t allowed to take up residence in hotels the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority sisters would open their homes to the models whenever the tour was passing through Bakersfield, their national motto being “greater service, greater progress.”