2016 Brave Wings Fashion Show

Downtown Phoenix was all a buzz at The Vintage 45 venue. This place is a well maintained warehouse converted into a source of entertainment. In the 1940's, The Vintage 45 may have housed heavy equipment, but today, this is what I suspect - it will be host to many more of Phoenix's hottest events! Looking out at the downtown Phoenix skyline was a sweet added touch. It has a very nice urban vibe about it. 

But on this night, the 4th annual Brave Wings Fashion Show would be debuting an eclectic style of designers from our very own local up and comings to the not so local. 



The show's founders Mabel Cortez of Mabella Chic and Jenesis Laforcarde of Woman's Touch Apparel do a fantastic job in collaborating with artists to create a magical show that appeals to everyone in the crowd. No matter your taste, one of these designers will appeal to your inner fashion self.  





Soooo here is the night's runway:

Woman's Touch Apparel   Bold. Flirty. Demanding. Intimidating. Fierce. Empowering. Feminism. Self-respect. Self-love. Self-worth. Done.

Last Ones Left   Co-founders Alec Frank and Jordan Sebastian came from a far, far away land called Colorado. These two high-spirited young men brought with them a fun unisex clothing line that adds a little more swag to the unseasoned urbanite's repertoire. This is active wear with a casual attitude. 

 

 

 
 

Symbolizing the last of the 90's, this collection is for every young minded soul                                looking to keep                                     on                                     trend. These                                 guys are                                    great!

































My Style Mode    This collection was quite eye-appealing. Body hugging fabrics in monochromatic tones revealed to-die-for linear angles. This gave dynamic movement to each piece. I want one of each please!

Mabella Chic  

This Mabella Chic collection gave us the "not your typical mom" looks with edgy and sexy creations that suits any busy mom who wants to maintain their fashion sense and mommyhood at the same time. Mabella Chic continues to step outside that box.

Electric Lyon  Oh how fun this collection is! I am digging on designer Jamie Lyon's whimsical play in her line. A girl can't help but feel a bit playful in these looks but also have a sense of maturity. I especially liked the hairstyles with the two buns. Perfect touch!

Nazila Couture  Designer Nazila Sawhney is always stunning on the runway. Keeping in tune with cultural lines and adornments maintains the elegance and beauty in Nazila Couture. Stunning!

Wedding Themed Collaboration by...
      Lana May Jewelry 
      Antoaneta Balabanova
      Aaron Eagles  of Aje'les Internal Compass

This is not to be your typical wedding party. With traditional bridal wear out the window, we are given avant garde couture that makes a huge statement. These talented designers showed how you can be the talk of the town on that special day. I loved the use of textures and color throughtout the collection creating these one of a kind looks. Very nice!

Hamati Designs  Love this guy's style right here! Sam Hamati brings THE collection of all collections. 


This Phoenix based designer gives me a Rocky Gathercole-vibe. His words..."a magical sense of whimsy". I loved it! My words cannot do the images justice. Take a look for yourself. Brilliant!

Each year Brave Wings Fashion Show chooses a foundation that impacts our community. This year is the Arizona Burn Foundation. They have developed a support program for burn survivors where they receive education on coping with the physical and psychological effects of their injuries. Such a wonderful foundation.


Hope you all enjoyed the Brave Wings Fashion show as much as we did. Watch for Talking the Five Talk Show for live interviews with the co-founders and designers


See you on the runway!
Toy

 Presented by www.chronicbehavior.com/    @chronicbehavior

www.facebook.com/FilmFashionFutures.com

Thanks to the Chronic Behavior team for their excellent coverage of the event. They are the team helping to support and promote the brand. We appreciate you for your continued support.

Health and Wellness Transformations - Part One - Livin' Lighter

Health and wellness transformations may appear to be a trend; however, your health and wellness should never just be a trend.  It’s easy to take for granted all the things you and other family members can do, until one day, you’re in a car accident, you experience a stroke, a loved one has a heart attack, someone gets diagnosed with diabetes or cancer, you can’t walk due to an injury, you can’t eat normal because you experience digestive or other processing issues.  This is the not so pleasant reality that each of us faces.  No one really wants to discuss the “what if” scenarios, but when you are affected by any one of these health challenges or others, you shouldn't avoid them.

Several areas of health and wellness are often seen as and considered frivolous, narcissistic and cosmetic.  So you’re asking yourself about now, what does this have to do with health and wellness?  It’s about choices and how you are affected by them.  Once you experience an injury or have been diagnosed with certain ailments or diseases or experience things due to heredity, there are choices that must be made to determine how you address, treat, manage, and become healthy again or survive what you are experiencing.

Society will often judge individuals for making choices about their health related to their looks or what is perceived to be superficial or based on other perceptions.  And then there is the factor of the cost related to health and wellness, whether its nutrition related, spa treatments, reductions of all sorts, enlargements of other sorts, workouts, gyms, memberships, MLM (multilevel marketing products/services), therapies, and on and on.  

I've had the opportunity to meet with a company that has a strong philosophy related to helping others.  They believe that if that you can educate individuals on the benefits and the impacts of certain health treatments and then generate progress reports that reflect the changes and provide relevant information over a period of treatments and time, that individuals can experience improvements.  With information, the individuals can then empower themselves to manage their health based on facts - facts that are generated through innovative integrated technologies part of the treatment process.

Livin’ Lighter, located at 14891 N Northsight, Suite #121, Scottsdale, AZ 85260, owned and operated by Karl Bode and Nancy Fromm, is focusing on providing non-invasive fat reduction through the use of latest LED Light technology, LIVIN’ LIGHTER^TM.  Their magical buzz words are “No Pain – No Surgery – No Downtime”.  It would be easy to copy and paste and take the touted research that is published and use that to explain what’s happening with the technology and why Livin’ Lighter is focusing on this line of treatments and why they are viewed as being part of an economic development boom for health and wellness services.  In my short but in-depth discussion with one of the co-owners, Karl Bode, I discovered much more to the why behind their choices of how they want to serve their clients.

Suffice it to say, my coverage is being separated into a three-part series covering, the business, the customer experience, and the technology innovation for Livin’ Lighter. 

The Business of Med Spas – Livin’ Lighter – Part One

The business of Med Spas is big (expected to reach over $3B in 2016 for the US) especially in what are designated as travel destination cities where individuals travel to the city for the experience.  I’m no stranger to Med Spas and have had the opportunity to experience not only locally, but also nationwide some very specific destination locations that cater to spa experiences.  From Orlando to Miami and Tampa, to Houston, out west to La Jolla and West Hollywood, to local spots in Chandler, Phoenix, and Scottsdale, I’ve had the chance to experience just what the Med Spa experience is about.  Coming from a background that included customer service, spas are perceived that they should have an impeccable level of treatment of the customer.  This treatment or session includes from the moment an individual should walk in the doors, to the greeting, welcome and sign-in, the services explanation for the treatment, the set-up and readiness, to the wait time for treatment, and then to the actual treatment, the environment and office aesthetics, the after-care, review of treatment outcomes, and then follow-up.

Unlike other spas, Livin’ Lighter has a primary focus from a business perspective on body contouring.  They define this to be loss of inches (fat loss) on the waist, hips, thighs, arms, and anywhere the LED Light technology can be applied.   

 The impact is also focused on fat reduction in such a way that a client would not experience downtime.  They offer their clients treatment packages from Bronze to Gold levels that vary based on the number of sessions and the number of weeks the sessions will be distributed over.

Livin’ Lighter is working to crush the perception that these services are only available to the celebrity lifestyle or exclusive limited clientele.  Through their branding and their own personal experience with the technology and services, they have established a business model that while new, they are definitely looking to over time evolve and to grow.  The demand for services is there and Livin’ Lighter knows they have what the populous is looking for.

While the perception that this business is about luxury nice to have’s, fat reduction is extremely important in an overall persons health management.  Anyone that is fighting diabetes or even back injury, weight plays a huge impact to the recovery and management of.  Fat is something that in small quantities is helpful for some brain function, however as part of the American diet, it could definitely use some trimming.  Body Fat Percentage measurements are used by most physical trainers and doctors who are helping clients with weight-loss.  The business of Livin’ Lighter is working to help fight and reduce fat.  What more could you ask for?

In Part II of the article series, we will talk about the full customer service and client experience for Med Spas including personal experience with Livin’ Lighter.  To learn more about Livin’ Lighter, visit their website:  https://www.livinlighter.com or call for your own appointment to find out and experience yourself – phone: (480) 757-2639.

The 2nd Annual IndieAZ Film Festival

Windy West, Ann Cabano, Sandy Penny, Angela Friis

by Toy Taylor - [RECAP] Thursday night boasted a huge success for the 2nd Annual IndieAZ Film Festival once again held at the Pollack Tempe Cinemas in the ever eclectic Tempe Arizona. 

This was a crazy cool event! Many of the night's short films left you shaking your head and pondering the what ifs. I mean really? Who would ever think of seeing the world through the perspective of a mattress? Things that make you say 'hmmm'.   

The event raised awareness for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and bullying within our communities. 

Provided by Elena and Jim

The charity of choice is  Agnes Centers for Domestic Solutions which strive to educate others by providing solutions in breaking the chains of physical and mental abuse amongst those wounded by such atrocities.

Adam Ruiz(l)

Here's some faces you may recognize on the red carpet.





Adam Ruiz who's film Terminus won Best of Fest at 
2015 IndieAZ Fest. 

Tonight he is showing Kill Waiting.

Gotta grab those red carpet shots!

Charlotte Helmkamp

Celebrity guest speaker Charlotte Helmkamp (former Playboy model/actor/author) knows all too well on the perils of being a survivor of abuse.

Her story is REAL and one you should check out. She is ah-ma-zing!

Gita Farid

There were other local celebrities in the house. A few on deck were the ever pleasant writer/director Gita Farid of Gita Farid Films. I had the pleasure of working with this phenomenal woman and let me tell you, her visions on old world history are strong, passionate and at times intense. Ms. Gita is an amazing story-teller. 

The wildly unprecedented producer Rob Rutledge himself was also in attendance. 

Rob Rutledge(l)

Rob's energy is so 
contagious you just can't help wanting to get a wee bit closer to him. I don't think his brain ever shuts down. MAD MAD MAD talent right here. 

Byron Cherry(l)

Byron Cherry best known for playing Coy Duke on the Dukes of Hazzard in the early 80's joined the party and even brought the famous General Lee with
 


him. I was all giddy especially when he let me get inside...yikes!

Robin Cote

Author and radio personality Robin Cote earned the Rose Award for her journey of survivalship, strength and being an inspiration to us all. 

Her story 'My Life, Victim No More! The Ugly Truth Exposed' is an experience that is of great magnitude. Congratulations Robin!




Star Worldwide Network Owner Dave Pratt was in the house. You know him best as big time radio personality for 3 decades now.


Now let's get to the real reason we are here. The event's lineup in show order are listed:

         The Woman Of The Mountain 
                   Director - Ryan Johnston 
                   Producer - Aaron Alysworth
                   Written by - Will Hirsch
        
         Donnie 
                   Director/Writer - Anna Augustowska 
                         
         A Thousand Words  
                   Director - Jacob Glass

         Lay It On Me
                   Director/Writer - Michelle Larkin

         Pop Quiz (Scottsdale Short Film Festival Winner)
                   Director - Josh Salazar
                   Producer - Robyn Sturgis

         Melvin
                   Director - Nate Doane

         Reverie
                   Director - Dana Bruhn

         Veil 
                   Director - Chuck Sterling
   
         Temporary
                   Director - Aaron Seever

         Kill Waiting
                   Director - Adam Ruiz

         Between You & Me
                   Director/Writer - Edgar Ybarra


After the viewing, the powers that be got together and tallied everything up. Time to mingle!   

 

 

        More 


red carpet                 fun!    

And the winner is....

BEST OF CAST - The Woman of the Mountain

BEST OF CREW - Temporary

BEST OF THESP - Between You & Me

BEST OF CRAFT - The Woman of the Mountain

BEST OF FEST - Between You & Me

AUDIENCE CHOICE - Between You & Me


And there you have it. It was a spectacular night.
A big thank you to Ann Cabano and Angela Friis who are the co-founders and owners of IndieAZ Fest and Sandy Penny and the ever lovely Windy West (the executive partners) for giving us this fabulous affair casting a bright sunshine-filled light on the film industry in Arizona. 

There is a tremendous amount of artistic talent in the valley that need a platform to be heard or in this case seen. Can't wait to see what the 2017 IndieAZ Festival has in store. Thank you ladies!

Eva Louis(l) and Jane Fendelman

See you on the runway!        

                                                                                   








 

        Presented by www.chronicbehavior.com/    @chronicbehavior

www.facebook.com/FilmFashionFutures.com

Thanks to the Chronic Behavior team and Joe Gutierrez of Joe G Photography for their excellent coverage of the event. They are the team helping to support and promote the brand. We appreciate you for your continued support.