Casual city: KC fashion influencers rank KC’s ‘melting pot’ style a 6/10
Kansas City is a melting pot of styles, giving the city an inclusive, casual and free-spirited fashion style, according to local fashion influencers.
“Kansas City is just kind of a place all of its own,” said Lori Barnes, media relations coordinator for Kansas City Fashion Week.
Kansas City Fashion Week highlights local, national and international designers for two weeks of runway shows each year, bringing together the fashion forward creatives of Kansas City.
The event uplifts designers while paying homage to Kansas City’s garment district, which was at its prime in the late 1940s. The event takes place every March at Union Station, helping elevate Kansas City fashion to an art form.
Barnes has been participating in the effort since 2014, and has been on the team for a little over a year, she said.
The fashion week never has an overarching theme because the team wants everyone to be comfortable and to wear what they feel makes them the most fashionable, said Barnes.
Clothing and apparel aren’t the only ways to explore fashion. Photographers, like Quinlyn Tosh, also play a role in the scene.
Originally from Joplin, Missouri, Tosh started her photography business with senior and family portraits and moved to Kansas City last October. The city helped her photography grow. She feels the art and fashion scene of Kansas City allowed her to be weird and different, compared to her hometown, where fashion was more basic, she said.
“What got me into the more creative fashion kind of things that I do was the scene here,” she said.
Tosh sees a mix of styles in the city, from casual to head-to-toe styling. She says it’s a running joke in her social circle that getting called ‘homeless’ is a compliment to someone’s sense of style.
“I don’t even know how I would really describe the style here. It’s kind of its own, honestly,” she said.
A simpler style
Tosh sees Kansas City picking up trends from cities like New York, but she also sees trends being started here.
“I swear I did not see anybody wearing, like black and white polka dots until like maybe a month ago, and it was like some of my closer friends here in Kansas City,” she said. “Then all of a sudden, now, polka dot is everywhere on my feed, and in the bigger cities.”
Both Tosh and Barnes agree that Kansas City has a simpler style, focused on comfort and practicality.
“A lot of people in Kansas City really embrace simple trends. You’re not gonna see a ton of the avant-garde trends that you might see in New York or LA,” said Barnes.
Some of the style trends Barnes has seen around the city include: clean girl, a minimalist style known for slick-back buns and tiny hoop earrings, bohemian cowgirl, defined by country aesthetics and inspired by Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album, mermaid aesthetic with it’s flowy silhouettes, sea-inspired textures and bright colors and ballet-core, which embraces pale pinks and ballet flats.
There are Kansas Citians who break away from trends completely, too.
“We have lots of designers that do like to push the boundaries,” said Barnes. “I feel like fashion week has always been very willing to embrace those aesthetics when other shows take a little bit longer.”
On a scale of 1 to 10, Kansas City earned a 6 for its fashion sense from Barnes and Tosh.
“Kansas City is fashionable for Kansas City,” said Barnes.
