Designers prepare for the annual Scene to be Seen Signature Gala

Saturday, dozens of local designers will be showcasing their extravagant clothing for the Naples Art Institute Scene to be Seen Signature Gala and Runway Show.

Gulfshore Life reporter, Jacquelyn Kisic went behind the scenes with some of the local artists who are a part of this year’s annual show.

The first Scene to be Seen Gala launched in 2017 to create a way for local artists to use their imagination and to inspire others with fashion.

A live auction will be held during the fashion show to raise funds for the arts.

In Fort Myers, luxury brand designer Ilkay Turk, of Turk and Turk Miami, has been a part of the Scene to be Seen Gala for the past five years.

For six months, Turk has been hand stitching her five-piece outfit named “Our Goddess Queen” that will exemplify “inner beauty” for her model.

“Saturday you will be seeing everything is going to be gold,” said Turk. “Even her makeup will have the gold paints and lots of rhinestones.”

To create a lighter feel, Turk decided to use a loofah material. Starting from the bottom with black loofas to becoming more gold toward the top of the crown.

“It’s little, and it’s so light. The shape is closest to the flower,” said Turk. “The first idea came from the flower, making the dress floral.”

In East Naples, Bejay Rouse and her daughter Kaylee Rouse have decided to take their skills to the next level.

Bejay Rouse, has been working with the Naples Arts Institute for several years. Her daughter Kaylee, inspired by her mother, started taking classes there a couple of years ago.

For the mom and daughter duo, this is the first year that they will be competing together in this year’s runway fashion show.

According to Kaylee Rouse, it will be a “neck-to-neck” going against her mom.

The family not only wanted their fashion to be a statement but also to raise awareness on recycling.

Bejay Rouse’s two outfits are incorporated with pop-tops. One dress has over 10,000 pop tops.

Kaylee Rouse is creating a new type of material, melting layers of plastic together to create a harder, flexible material.

“One’s going to be like a cocktail dress,” said Kaylee. “The other is going to be a little bit tighter, sophisticated with pants and this big giant boa.”

According to the Florida Department of Enviromental Protection, they found 2.5 million pounds of textile materials are recycled in Southwest Florida. For the Rouses, they believe more needs to be done.

“I got into dumpster diving like heavily,” said Kaylee. “I noticed that there’s a lot of really, really good like brand material, new, untouched clothing.”

With the concerning levels of trash in Southwest Florida, Kaylee decided to create a non-profit organization called Dumpster Witch Coalition, an effort to reuse materials rather than throwing clothes away.

In South Naples, another designer, Marie Rhatigan, started sewing clothes as a young teenager.

Rhatigan, throughout the years, has created clothes, bookmarks, cards and accessories.

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rhatigan started to create more elaborate clothes for the Scene to be Seen Gala Runway Show.

“I would say I’m getting braver as I get older,” said Rhatigan. “I think a big part of my growth, doing my artwork, was during COVID, saved my life.”

At the age of 20, Rhatigan married her husband, Joesph. The two would attend Broadway shows on a regular basis, inspiring her two outfits for this year’s show.

“One of them is my Ode to Broadway,” said Rhatigan, “because as somebody who grew up in Brooklyn, I wanted to kind of pay homage to Broadway and all the different shows, and the pleasure that I got out of it.”

Rhatigan’s second outfit was inspired by Rhatigan’s favorite songs growing up as a child from Brooklyn, New York, including the song called “Bubbles, Bangles and Beads.”

The outfit is covered in several different colors of beads, pearls and rimstones.

For anyone who wishes to design clothes, Rhatigan has some advice that helped her along the way.

“I would tell anyone that wants to do it, to just try it,” said Rhatigan. “You make mistakes, you learn from them.”

The Scene to be Seen Gala will be held on Saturday at the Naples Grand starting at 6 p.m.