LAUNCH’S DEBUT FASHION SHOW COMES TO LIFE AT DISCOVERY GREEN

Fashion Show to Feature More Than 40 Designers, alongside Headline Designer Chloe Dao

HOUSTON (January 14, 2019) — Spring is soon to bloom as LAUNCH, a downtown-area pop-up boutique, collaborates with Discovery Green^® to host its first fashion show featuring local designers.  The show will take place on Saturday, January 26 from 5 – 8 p.m. at Discovery Green, the 12-acre urban park located at downtown’s Avenida Houston.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Discovery Green to host LAUNCH’s first fashion show and market place,” said Sydney Dao, director of retail for Houston First. “This partnership will allow some of Houston’s most unique and talented designers to make their dreams a reality on the runway while attracting new audiences to LAUNCH. We are certain the diverse roster of designers will offer something for everyone.”

Free and open to the public, this celebration of style will give more than 40 Houston-based apparel and accessories designers the opportunity to showcase their talents on the runway. Each look will reflect Houston’s sophistication and edge. Wellness salon and spa Riot Salon HTX will provide hair and makeup and DJ Little Martin will provide live runway music. Designer Chloe Dao, winner of Project Runway Season 2, will headline the show, which will also include Of Myth & Muse, Marilyn Biles, Edwige Pierre, Magpies & Peacocks and Kimono Zulu, among others.

Fashion and art will collide as the park’s winter art installation, GUST: Celebrating a Decade of Discovery, commissioned from Mexico City-based design studio Cocolab, illuminates the show’s runway. Composed of nearly 2,000 custom-made pinwheels installed along Discovery Green’s Brown Foundation Promenade, the work is animated by fluctuating breezes as well as interactions with the public, creating a kinetic field of color under Discovery Green’s live oak allée.

“While the Cocolab team was working on the design concept for GUST, I couldn’t help but notice that the work’s vivid colors and the sense of movement along the Brown Promenade took on the feel of a fashion runway,” said Judy Nyquist, chair of the Discovery Green Conservancy’s Public Art Committee. “As the park’s neighbor and a champion of local designers, LAUNCH emerged as a natural fit for our programming partner. We are thrilled to see our beloved allée used in this new and unique way.”

Fashion-forward guests are invited to shop before and after the show at the Pop-Up Market located on the Hess Patio Deck. The market will have products from more than 20 LAUNCH vendors, including Chloe Dao, Modern Artifacts, Inclan, Brenda Grands, Diverscity and more.

The evening will roll on with an after party on Discovery Green’s Brown Promenade with DJ Little Martin spinning the latest hits as the models line the runway, giving guests a closer look at designers’ products. GUST activation stations along the promenade will allow guests to “be the breeze” and fully interact with the pinwheels.

LAUNCH is located on the ground floor of Houston First Corp.’s Partnership Tower at 701 Avenida De Las Americas. The hours are from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday – Saturday. Shoppers visiting the boutique can park in Avenida North Parking Garage or take the Green Line on the Metro Rail to the Convention District.  Follow LAUNCH on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @launchHTX to learn more about the designers, artists and news.

ABOUT LAUNCH

LAUNCH, operated by the Houston First Corporation, is based in Avenida Houston and is a retail platform for Houston-based designers as well as a place for community development and business education.  The name is not only a nod to Houston’s reputation as “Space City,” it references the “launch” of emerging designers from the city’s growing creative community. The downtown pop-up boutique aims to promote and educate visitors and Houstonians alike of the high-level of goods designed and produced in the Bayou City. LAUNCH introduces a new roster of designers every two months offering goods in art, home goods, apparel and accessories. In July, they kicked off their first series of “Inside LAUNCH with Joy Sewing,” a quarterly series of educational programs created for entrepreneurs in the creative industry.

ABOUT HOUSTON FIRST CORPORATION

Houston First operates the city’s finest convention and arts facilities to position Houston as a world-class destination. In 2014, Houston First and the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau aligned operations to create a single voice representing the city under the brand Visit Houston. Houston First owns the Hilton Americas-Houston hotel, manages the George R. Brown Convention Center and 10 city-owned properties and is a driving force in developing the new Avenida Houston entertainment district. Learn more at HoustonFirst.com and VisitHouston.com.

ABOUT DISCOVERY GREEN

Discovery Green is a highly acclaimed 12-acre park created by a public-private partnership between the City of Houston and the nonprofit Discovery Green Conservancy in downtown Houston, Texas. Since opening in April 2008, the park has welcomed more than 13.5 million visitors. Discovery Green features sprawling lawns, a one-acre lake, an interactive fountain, a playground, public art installations, gardens and an allée of century-old live oaks. The Discovery Green Conservancy works with hundreds of programming partners to present more than 700 artistic, musical, educational, family-friendly and health-focused events each year, most of which are presented free to the public. The park also features two on-site restaurants, the award-winning destination restaurant The Grove and the fast-casual Lake House Café, providing visitors with an array of dining options. As a nonprofit organization, the Conservancy raises all the funds needed for the programming that Houstonians enjoy. For more information, please visit www.discoverygreen.com.

Discovery Green. Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.