Events

Urban Reflections and Walk This Way Productions will celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the Ultimate Fashion Experience Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015 at the Lake Mirror Center, 121 S. Lake Ave.

The doors open at 5:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $25 for individual tickets to $250 for VIP tables that seat four, and can be purchased on Eventbrite.

In honor of the 15^th anniversary, organizers will debut a short film about Urban Reflections that features the founders and Urban Reflections participants.

This fashion show is far from what is seen on high-profile runways in New York and Paris. It is an experience that features music, artistic dance and theatrics in addition to fashion, says Angela Bailey, cofounder of Urban Reflections, a nonprofit organization that offers personal development to at-risk youth through modeling training.

 “This show features all ages, shapes and sizes,” says Bailey, who also cofounded Walk This Way Productions, a fashion show production company. “The goal is to accurately reflect our community.”

The show pairs professional runway models with aspiring models and participants from Urban Reflections and from throughout the Southeast. Proceeds from the fashion show benefit Urban Reflections, which teaches job preparedness and provides academic tutoring, in addition to modeling classes/training workshops.

“Graduating from high school, getting a college education, and becoming professional models helped my sister (LaWanda Bailey) and I create better lives for ourselves,” Bailey says. “We are grateful for our opportunities, and we want to give back.”

Urban Reflections is the Bailey sisters’ tool for helping create opportunities for the young men and women growing up in the community in which they were raised.

The organization has mentored more than 3,500 participants in Lakeland, Miami and Tallahassee since its founding in 2000. More than 85 percent have obtained high school diplomas. Of those, 45 percent percent have gone on to obtain college degrees. About 10 percent of participants have gone on to work in the fashion industry.