Last Saturday I joined a group of fellow gussied-up folks for an evening called Inspired Elegance, a fashion show fundraiser for Tacoma Art Place, which took place at Stadium Bistro.

This night consisted of five amazing courses of fine food and wine (the Angus beef and sauce was absolutely delectable) and elegant fashions designed by students from the Tacoma School of the Arts and other local women.

The eight aspiring fashion designers and general artists worked with established local designers in Daniel Blue of Loyalty Conglomerate and Lisa Fruichantie of Transcendence Design during a 24-hour time span to create wearable art.

The fruits of their labor were indeed inspiring and they were a word that kept getting dropped throughout the course of the night: Empowering.

During and in between the five scrumptious courses, a parade of designs flowed before the 25-plus attendees and included a Kimono-inspired tube dress with faux suede shawl wrap, a poofy and youthful leopard cocktail dress; a drape garment inspired by the Greek fabric pattern that was married with a goddess robe; a black dress with a halter top finish, ribbon bows in the back and an elegant single-slit skirt; a sweet and simple baby doll dress inspired by Norway; and an Elizabethan corset with a gold wrap.

Each design was worn by the aspiring fashion designer or artist herself: Brenda Groboski, Camille Kelsey, Sinead Dennis (SOTA student), Andrea Trenbeath Lowen, Anastasia Nelson (SOTA student), Adriane Tate, Chelsea Ballinger and Kierra Miller.

What made the event even better was learning that all of the aforementioned women would receive the gift of an annual membership to Tacoma Art Place, which is a non-profit that provides affordable access to art equipment and training.

All of these inspiring designs will be on display at Tacoma Art Place, located at 1116 S. 11th, throughout the end of the week.

For more information about this cool nonprofit (the Weekly Volcano LOVES founder Linda Danforth), visit the Tacoma Art Place Web site, and add them to your MySpace. â€" Natasha Gorbachev

Photography by Dave Poole.

Second Photo: Tacoma jewelry artist Andrea Trenbeath Lowen designed, constructed and modeled a goddess robe fantasy dress for the Inspired Elegance fashion show benefiting Tacoma Art Place.

Third Photo: Kierra Miller is wearing a no sew, black tube dress accented by a leather belt she made with the help of professional fashion designer Daniel Blue.

Fourth Photo: Adrianne Tate stands tall in the Elizabethan stylized dress she designed. Her father taught her to sew by mending socks at age 5.