All photos by Kris Krug of Static Photography.

Arise Magazine and Thisday collaborated on the African Fashion Collective, featuring four designers and mostly models of colour.  I was surprised to see upon entering the Promenade tent that many of the RSVP’d guests hadn’t shown up, so all of the standees ended up getting seated in their place.  This, despite rumours that Tyson Beckford and Naomi Campbell might be walking the runway for this show…

The XULY.Bët show began with a black and white video of Grace Jones singing about eating flesh and other bizarre cannibalistic (but sexy) notions.  Kris describes the vid as animatronic, robotic talking-head, as Jones’ head was all warpy and warbled.

Canadian model and runway coach Stacey McKenzie, who was a guest judge on Canada’s Next Top Model recently, appeared in the show (thanks to Trevor Ellestad for identifying the photo for us!):

The audience went wild when these two showed up…Alek Wek and Tyson Beckford:

And even wilder when Grace Jones took to the runway:

Tiffany Amber from Nigeria was up next.  This purple dress was probably my favourite piece from the whole show, I just adore the detailing around that plunging neckline:

Did I mention how much I loved the hair for this show?  Braided at the nape, looped around the top of the head and pinned in place.

Gorgeous colours, this piece garnered applause from the audience:

Followed by Stoned Cherrie:

Coloured tights really spiced things up, these looks were an eyeful:

so many beautiful models!

And lastly, momo:

The felted and printed hats were on every single model, a great theme that drove attention to the clothes.  Hid the model’s eyes. Want one.

momo was Kris’ favourite of the 4 designers in the collective:

The afterparty was held at the Plaza with a special appearance by Solange Knowles.