Awareness is the heart of fashion show in Winter Park

Loud music and high-end fashion filled the West Meadow in Winter Park Saturday night as 100 models and 16 local designers took to the runway to help fight cardiovascular disease.

Event coordinators for Harriett's Park Avenue Fashion Week have teamed up with the American Heart Association to promote awareness for cardiovascular disease through fashion for the past three years. The last two years have also featured survivors of heart disease walking down the runway.

"Heart disease is the number one killer of women 20 years of age and older, so [it's] quite significant to know that young women in their 20s are being majorly affected by cardiac events…certainly the younger demographic of women is the perfect target demographic of those participating in Park Avenue Fashion Week," said director of communications for the American Heart Association, Nancy DeVault.

For the past five years, the show has given Harriett's Park Avenue Fashion Week a chic conclusion.

"This is the fifth year of the event and the third year we've helped on production," event coordinator Dan Leaphart said.

Leaphart, a UCF grad, works for Cox Events, a local production company that puts on all kinds of shows, from rock concerts to arts and crafts fairs.

Along with a committee of about 30 people, Leaphart and his team began planning the event in July, meeting every Wednesday.

DeVault was also a member of the committee, working directly with Leaphart and encouraging the boutiques involved to find ways to help raise money.

"It's really good because you never get lost from the event. At the same time, it's a lot of time invested in the event, which is worthwhile because there's a lot of planning that goes into this. I mean, we could have planned for two more months and it still would have been just as crazy and we would still be hustling at five o'clock to get this thing rolling," Leaphart said.

The biggest challenge for Leaphart was working with such a large group of people with many different opinions. He is used to working with radio stations, which only have about three or four people working on a single event. This situation is familiar for Leaphart, who started his career planning events for local radio stations.

Leaphart graduated from UCF in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies. Afterwards he was hired at the radio station WHTQ, where he got his experience working on large events.

As part of his current job with Cox Events, Leaphart also works to promote events on radio stations like WMMO, which is where model Alexa Schmidt heard about the casting call.

"Last year it was advertised on the radio, so I went to the calling and returned this year," Schmidt said.

Schmidt, 21, is a senior studying psychology at UCF and has done some modeling in the past, but had never tried runway modeling before last year's show.

"It was nerve-racking. I was excited, but it was the first time so I was new to it," Schmidt said.

One of the factors that made Schmidt decide to participate in the show was the cause it supported.

"It's for a great cause. So, it's nice to be a part of something entertaining and arts-related, but also to raise money and fund a great cause," Schmidt said.

Because of her experience last year, Schmidt said she was more than happy to walk the runway again. This time, however, she got to model for two different designers: Thread and Coralia Leets, a jewelry design company.

Her first outfit, designed by Thread, was a casual look that included a mustard brown top and a pair of jeans.

For her Coralia Leets look, she wore a red satin strapless dress. However, the outfit's focus was on the layers of jewelry she was wearing, designed by the jewelry company.

"I liked both outfits, but I liked [the Coralia Leets look] the most because we got to walk barefoot, which was really different. We kind of stood out from the other stores that were walking," Schmidt said.

Schmidt is looking into graduate school after UCF, but would like to keep modeling on the side as a hobby.

Each person who purchased a ticket was given an option to donate more to the American Heart Association. Though the numbers have not come back yet, DeVault is estimating about $2,000 in charitable donations will come in.

According to Leaphart, around 850 people came out for the show. At the very least, DeVault is hoping to raise awareness for cardiovascular disease.

"For us, the most important part was the awareness. To have the platform of Harriett's Park Avenue Fashion Week embracing the American Heart Association mission and getting that out to the community is really the most valuable portion for us," DeVault said.