When you think of Peoria, fashion may not be the place that comes to mind. But a long-running and passionate fashion scene exists in Peoria, and a new event aims to raise the visibility of some local designers.
Chanel Hargrave-Murry is relatively new to Peoria's scene, but fashion is foundational to her childhood. Hargrave-Murry started modeling in middle school while growing up in California.
“There were always beach fashion shows, my family was really big into throwing events,” she said. “Sometimes, it was fashion shows as well. So that’s where I got that from.”
Chanel and her husband Ezra Murry took a trip to New York Fashion week, when Chanel's daughter Leilani Taylor was crowned Teen Miss Illinois Earth in 2022.
A photographer with Joker Visuals Media, Ezra was inspired to start Peoria Fashion Week by New York's fashion extravaganza, and decided to bring that experience back to the Midwest.
“The main thing I thought was that, man, there are so many creative and talented people back home,” he said. “There’s no reason why we can’t do the same thing, if not bigger, back at home in Peoria.”
The result is the first-ever Peoria Fashion Week, a three-day event at the Exposition Gardens that Chanel said they plan to expand to a full week next year. Of course, a fashion show isn't possible without talented local designers, but Chanel never doubted they could find them.
“I think what I was more concerned about was that we would get an influx of designers wanting to be a part of it,” she said. “And then we were going to have to try and figure out how everyone was going to fit.”
More than a dozen local and regional designers are slated to appear over the event’s three days: cultural day, youth day and high fashion day to wrap it all up. There’s also live music and a long list of vendors set for the event.
Tommie Love Jr. of Identified Royalty is one of the designers. Love said his brand started with a family crest that became a tattoo and evolved into T-shirts, sweat suits, athletic wear, a music group and more.
“I’m a bigger guy, you know what I’m saying? They don’t make a lot of stuff, so far as fashionable, that I like,” Love said. “So that was the initial reason, you know, to make some stuff that was better suited to myself and it just went from there.”
Love describes his style as "classy, with a little style to it" and "very relevant, up to date, but with some cultural history.” Though his journey started with making plus-size clothing, he plans to have a little bit of everything on display at Peoria Fashion Week.
“I just want to be able to relate to everybody, I want to be able to leave nobody out,” he said. “I want to feel like anybody in the community who feels like this doesn’t apply to them, Identified Royalty applies to everybody.”
Love is in the process of setting up his first store in Peoria, and plans to start by selling to people he's already built fashion relationships with in the area.
Other designers headed for fashion week are earlier in their designing journey, like high school sophomore Ryann St. Louis, co-owner of Ry’ana Fashion. A passion for fashion started early for St. Louis, surrounded by family with similar interests.
“My sister already liked designing stuff, so I found that really interesting,” she said. “But I wasn’t really with the kid stuff. So, I decided to take what they already had and make it more mature, more adult stuff.”
St. Louis primarily enjoys the designing, drawing and brainstorming part of the design process. For fashion week, she'll be collaborating with another young designer — Chanel's daughter, Leilani Taylor of Leilani Delivia Couture.
“I feel like the fashion in my generation, it’s really cool, because everyone has their own style, their own ideas,” she said. “I feel like me being this age, doing this fashion show, it’s a really big opportunity to show off what my generation can do.”
Taylor and St. Louis don't give too much away about their designs, but said they draw inspiration from all sorts of places and the looks use a variety of fabrics, including tulle (a favorite of St. Louis') and "crafty" features like rhinestones and flowers.
Janet Cornish-Davis, who started Janet's Just for You in Peoria with her husband George 33 years ago, said the young designers are the future.
“You start, really, at 5-6 years old, Easter Sunday when you’re all dressed up,” she said. “Some people are like ‘ugh, this is itchy, I don’t like it,’ and some are swirling and twirling because they’re into it.”
Janet and George will be showing off some of the pieces from their store at fashion week, pieces she calls "old school." This is the first show she's done in years.
Then there's the music.
Mike Gills usually goes by "Mike from the Nine" as one-third of the music group Iron Rose. They'll be performing and showing off new pieces in their own clothing line at the show.
“Music and fashion I believe are like two of the biggest expressions in the world,” Gills said. “It definitely goes hand in hand. I always say ‘If you feel good, you look good, you rap good,’ whatever you do.”
As Ezra Murry points out, fashion week is a platform to show off a thriving scene, ready for more attention and the opportunity to grow.
“I want whoever to be able to walk through the doors and have a positive experience,” he said. “And to walk away and say, ‘Man, that was amazing, Peoria is something else!’”
It's a confluence of some of the most creative voices in Peoria fashion, coming together to show off what the region has to offer.
You can find a full list of designers, event details and ticketing information on the Peoria Fashion Week website here.
