A person wears an elaborate outfit and headdress

Chakaia Booker in full regalia. Photo copyright Chakaia Booker. provided by Marlborough Gallery, New York, taken by Nelson Tejada, 2003.

The free event features a chance for families to make cool fashion, ready for our runway

As we approach September’s Second Saturday, renowned artist Chakaia Booker works to assemble her massive new outdoor exhibition, Shaved Portions, before its Sept. 9 opening. She is hard to miss: Booker styles herself as a walking art piece and wears elaborate, self-created headdresses.

Most of Booker’s work, including her personal fashion, reflects the desire for society to reuse and upcycle things that otherwise might be thrown away — Shaved Portions is constructed from the remnants of used tires. From noon to 3 p.m. this Saturday, Sept. 11, families can be like Booker and create exciting new fashion and art in our nice-and-cool Te Ata Theater, then strut their stuff on the catwalk.

“The theme this Saturday will be Runway Artwear,” said Christine Gibson, manager of youth and family programs. “So we were really inspired by Chakaia Booker's personal style and how she kind of considers herself a walking sculpture. I even saw her today out there working on the installation — she had some beautiful attire on.”

While Booker’s style might be a perfect jumping-off point for fashion creativity, anything goes for the young designers participating in Second Saturday.

“We want our guests to come in and express their own personal style,” Gibson said. “So we're going to have nontraditional kinds of clothing items, so maybe they’ll use paper, plastic, maybe some recycled materials, to create their own dress or a cape or maybe a hat. And if they want to dress like Chakaia, they can try that.”

The afternoon culminates in a fashion show, giving everyone a chance to show off their creations from that afternoon, complete with lights and music to set the celebratory mood.

“Once you feel like your piece is complete, we're going to have our theater set up like a runway with music and mic so you can really get that full effect and get some fun videos or some pictures of yourself walking the runway,” Gibson said.