Next up is Art Walks the Runway at KMAC Couture.

Curated by the Kentucky Museum of Arts and Crafts Contemporary Art Museum, this wearable live art show features one-of-a-kind looks by designers from diverse regions and backgrounds.

The event gives opportunities to emerging and established artists to display their work in the heart of downtown Louisville, while also benefiting the museum.

Every year, hundreds of guests dress in all white to witness this showcase, tailor-made to turn heads.

Couture means made for you.

It's something that is completely unique and styled for your body, your complexion.

It's something that is fitting and unique to the person who's going to be wearing it.

KMAC is a contemporary art museum.

We've been in Louisville, Kentucky, since 1981, featuring art that is being made right now.

[music playing] KMAC Couture is a wearable art runway show.

It's our biggest fundraiser.

It started 13 years ago in 2012.

We featured the work of several student artists, and models walked through the museum.

The crowd was here, and people went wild.

And so every year since then, it's grown bigger.

There's been more people in the community that want to come and see it.

There's more artists that want to participate.

We had 1,500 people on Main Street Downtown.

We closed off the street.

We had a white tent, a 196-foot runway.

Eighty looks, I believe, walked the runway.

There were 99 artists participating.

So it's kind of two things in one.

It's a great art experience for the guests, as far as it's not your typical chicken dinner fundraiser, because art is actually being created for the event.

And at the same time, for the artists and models, it's just a life-changing experience.

It's a beautiful display of creativity and craftsmanship.

Some of the most incredible designs that I've ever seen have walked that runway.

I sort of liken it to the Met Gala.

It's very different than what we normally do.

You can't beat the excitement and the energy.

And when people come for the first time, they're like Wow, I had no idea.

The best thing about KMAC Couture is the diversity of the artists, because you will have seasoned, professional fashion designers, and there are also students, teenagers, and then people who've been creating art well into their 60s and 70s, some that come from other states and other countries.

So it's not just artists creating anything they want.

The idea is that there is a theme every year.

With it being our 13th anniversary, it was Lucky 13, and all about superstition and luck that goes with that number.

The buzz of KMAC Couture is just unmatched.

Everyone is so excited, and the energy of that runway, when the crowd is just hollering and shouting for you, it's really incredible.

I wanted to get involved with KMAC to challenge myself as an artist.

There are designs that I like to make that are avant-garde or strange.

I work with vintage and recycled materials.

In 2024, I created what has been called the duffle bag dress.

So I used a Christmas tree Santa sack that I found for $4, and I created this three-dimensional rose mantle, which is supposed to represent the winning mantle that goes on the horse at the Kentucky Derby.

I felt magnificent wearing that piece.

It felt royal and regal and like a winner, but it was just made out of a duffle bag.

It is incredible to see the ingenuity of artists and what they come up with.

You never know what you're going to get.

We have artists that use raw fruits and vegetables, and then they weave into a garment.

[rattling] I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for KMAC, that's for sure.

Working with pressing fruits and vegetables is a very old technique.

It's a material that is difficult to use, and for it to work right, it's taken a lot of experimentation.

The colors I use are really, really bright and intense.

I feel like that's my other personality coming out.

Certainly, I never thought of myself as a designer.

I've learned from this unique material over the years how to work it into multiple designs on how it can flow down the runway, can walk on a live model.

This is just like what I just put into the press, where I layered them.

You can see them stick together.

The first time I submitted my work, I only was making hats, and so now I had to learn how to make a whole garment.

Each piece has a lot of meaning to me.

In 2016, that was a dedication to my mom.

I called it Butterfly Muse.

The second favorite was this one that I did this last year, 2025 Lady Lotus Good Karma.

I keep coming back to the KMAC Couture Show because it challenges me every year.

I challenge myself to do better work.

They gave me that platform to help me learn how to be a designer.

I think there's a great art movement in this state, and I don't think that's going to stop.

Kentucky has always had such a history of great artists.

I mean, going back 200 years.

And so, but I do feel like this show certainly is helping to create new artists.

This year, I believe our youngest was a second-grade student, and she had one of her teachers wear her look.

If you're a first-time artist or a high school artist, we pair you with a mentor, and so that is usually a creative professional.

With a mentorship program, it's important just to build confidence and support in your artist, but it really is about sometimes just keeping those deadlines, making sure that you're on track.

Artists have said to us that this is a transformational experience, not just for themselves and the quality and enthusiasm they have for their work, but their ability to connect with other artists and learn and grow.

We've had several students come through our program that were in high school and then went on to go to art school.

I feel that KMAC Couture is an extremely unique experience in Kentucky.

I wish that there were more opportunities for artists to express themselves in this way.

I really think it's important to keep celebrating art and have a place and a space for it, because, again, it's not just about the art, it's what are the ideas and the things that come from that.

It's vital to have a place where the community can come together and be creative.

[music playing]