On Saturday, businesses from East Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth, and the Atlanta, Georgia area gathered under one roof to celebrate fashion and bring exposure to their small businesses.
BAM Woman Magazine Beauty Editor LaCrecia Steward emphasized that this event was an outlet for small business owners to receive the recognition that they deserve. BAM stands for Beautiful Ambitious Motivated.
“A lot of small businesses don’t get the recognition as I feel like they should. We’re quick to go to the mall, to the big stores but you have people with the same things and same quality and sometimes better quality, but this is how they feed their families,” Steward said. “Some of them don’t have the funds for the marketing and advertising that the big companies do, so we’re here to showcase them.”
Steward said that the fashion soiree was in the works since last year, but with the death of an East Texas fashion icon, Sandra Jackson, the event received the push it needed as Jackson had dreamed of hosting a show.
Women who participated in the fashion show runway were aspiring models, professional models or clients of boutiques and fashion designers who volunteered their time to showcase their clothing.
“East Texas surrounding counties and cities came out and supported BAM Woman Magazine Fashion Soiree,” Steward said. “This was our first one and this won’t be our last one. We showcased different businesses here in East Texas, DFW area and someone came from Atlanta, Georgia, to participate in our fashion show. I just want to say, East Texas don’t sleep on us, we will be doing more fashion shows in the future. We will be doing another one next year and I just want everyone to pay attention and be on the lookout, BAM is on the move.”
This event was not limited to only fashion vendors, but any small business that needed exposure. A unique business at the event was Reign premium sanitary napkins and liners. Glinda Howard, awareness ambassador of Reign premium sanitary napkins and liners, talked about the importance of being part of this event.
“We are excited to share this product and educate and inform men and ladies about the dangers of sanitary napkins and tampons. This is a necessity, a woman or a young girl is going to wear some type of protection, they are going to wear it sometime or another,” Howard said.
According to literature distributed by the company, traditional feminine care products can be harmful to the body. Reign’s graphene-infused sanitary napkins are non-toxic and may help reduce bacteria and irritation.
During the event, Bojack Allen received the East Texas Style Icon award and Diana Lopez received the East Texas Confidence award.
Steward said that she appreciates the support of East Texas and asked people to stay tuned for the August issue of BAM Woman Magazine and other upcoming editions.