Aurora designer to hold fashion show fundraiser to benefit victims of child abuse, trafficking
Indian-American fashion brand Aiyna Atelier is excited to announce the Femmes Force Fashion Show. The fundraiser will be 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at the Bolingbrook Golf Club in Bolingbrook.
The fashion show will feature the brand's first haute couture collection by founder and head designer Sandhya Nair of Aurora.
All ticket sales and sales of the collection will be donated to Swakshatra - Innately Strong, a shelter based in Bengaluru, India. The nongovernmental organization is operated by retired officers of the Indian Army to rehabilitate girl survivors of child abuse and trafficking.
The idea for the haute couture line and fashion show stemmed from a recent trip Nair took to the Swakshatra facilities. She met with its founder, Bhavana Chiranjay, and was moved by Chiranjay's initiative to repair the psyches of young victims of rampant sexual abuse, many of whom initially served as child laborers in family homes.
Through a focus on creative activities such as music, martial arts, yoga, arts and crafts and painting, Chiranjay and her nine co-workers build a positive mental image for each girl and deal with the aftermath of trauma.
Nair left her stay at Swakshatra determined to design a collection that could serve as a visual representation of the depth of unspeakable sorrow female sufferers of abuse experience at a global level.
"As a kid, when these kind of things happen it is difficult to figure out who to talk to," said Nair. "(The Femmes Force Fashion Show) will give a message of the type of pain these women and children feel, in ways they cannot put into words."
Incorporation of bold colors, nature-inspired embellishments, raw fabrics and astrological Taurus imagery will all contribute to the collection's illustration of feminine strength and emotion.
The runway show will feature more than 20 models of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. Each couture piece is custom designed and hand-sewn by Nair and the Aiyna Atelier team.
Nair hopes the "Femmes Force Fashion Show" will be an annual event for years to come, in order to continue raising funds for Swakshatra.
"I always wanted to benefit a cause, and the cause that I'm close to is sexually abused children and women," Nair said. "Just me thinking about it isn't going to do anything, though. We need a lot of women and even a lot of men to help."
Swakshatra has currently provided 22 children with medical care, counseling, legal support and education, and hopes to reach as many children as possible. To learn more about their organization, visit www.swakshatra.in.
Early bird tickets by Aug. 30 are $55. After Aug. 30, tickets go up to $75 or $100 for VIP. The deadline to order tickets is Friday, Oct. 5.
Tickets for the "Femmes Force Fashion Show" begin at $55 and can be purchased at femmesforceshow.eventcombo.com.
To support the event via its GoFundMe campaign, visit www.gofundme.com/help-shelter-our-indian-girls.
For more information, follow the "Femmes Force Fashion Show" on Twitter and Instagram @femmesforceshow, and Aiyna Atelier on Facebook, @aiynainc and on the web at www.aiynaatelier.com.