Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1540272
October/November 2025 | maconmagazine.com 61 I 'm writing this in the afterglow of the Macon Fashion Week (MFW) launch on September 13 — a night filled with shared joy among designers, patrons, and planners. Macon Magazine, in partnership with Wesleyan College, put it on as a preview of what to expect. If you're not up on the slang, "put it on" means to get dressed with intention. Fashion can feel like luxury, but art shouldn't be. "Luxury is what you value," said Virgil Abloh, the groundbreaking designer who redefined fashion's possibilities as Louis Vuitton's first Black artistic director in the brand's 164-year history. I think that's true, and the dialogue around fashion hasn't always felt accessible. Immersion in art makes us feel. Watching artists create our style choices is my kind of immersion. Enter Macon Fashion Week, because we must wake up to creativity in our midst. MFW is articulating the story of what's already happening here. A goal is to get artists paid, but this is about intersectionality. Let's see how our lives, dislikes, and loves cross paths. That's where bridges are being built. Expect themes of education, history, sustainability, and cultural implications with daytime and evening meetups, curated programs, and style presentations. Come designers, makers, shop owners, stylists, fashion-forward friends, vintage lovers, upcyclers, sustainable sisters, story seekers, dudes who "don't care" (but want to impress), tastemakers, people who crave functionality – or just thoughtfulness. Before you go, read about our five Macon-based and two Muscogee-citizen designers creating a collective on the urban runway in Downtown Macon this November. WHY NOT MACON FASHION WEEK? STORY BY SUSANNAH MADDUX PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAVE BJORKMAN, SHAWNA QUOTA Quitman Alexander in a thrifted suit