Flora Montes founded Bronx Fashion Week in 2014 with a $200 unemployment check and a firm belief that fashion was more than just cloth. With every step in her path, she has coordinated yearly runway displays and modeling schools to provide opportunities for young Bronx talent to enter the fashion industry.
Montes will honor “A Decade of Dreams” with the 10th runway event on May 25 at the Mall at Bay Plaza. This year’s projects will allow around 200 models and designers to demonstrate their designs. But her labor does not end with runway shows. In 2022, she received a phone call from South Bronx Community Charter High School, requesting her to plan activities for its kids. “They are interested in fashion,” she was informed. Following that, the office of Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark hosted three prom outfit donation ceremonies, in 2019, 2022, and again this year on April 19.
This ambition of introducing fashion to classrooms is being realized in one of New York’s most symbolic boroughs for Latinos. According to the Census, they account for more than 56.6% of the population, with a poverty rate of roughly 27% in 2022, compared to 18.3% citywide that year, according to New York University’s Furman Center, which studies land use, real estate, housing, and urban affairs policy.
According to its own count, Bronx Fashion Week has sponsored over 500 young designers and over 800 diverse or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color) models, with assistance from Fashion Row, H&M, Sephora, Macy’s, and the New York Botanical Garden. According to Montes, Bronx Fashion Week has established business relationships that have helped more than 300 small businesses enhance their operations at events like as last year’s runway show at The Mall at Bay Plaza. Its fundamental purpose is to have a profound human impact. “The only thing these kids need is someone to take care of them and relate to them,” Montes stated.
