Guests arrived through the garden behind All Peoples Church Unitarian Universalist in the heart of the Meadowbrook neighborhood and into the event room, which was lined with tables covered in colorful streamers. Gift bags welcomed attendees at each seat, where guests eagerly awaited the Fort Worth Community Collaborative’s fashion show.
This fashion show didn’t showcase designer collections. The FWCC’s Cowtown Catwalk fashion show featured outfits created from secondhand clothing found at the nonprofit’s Cowtown Closet, which provides free clothing for those in need. The event was FWCC’s first fundraiser and a way to pay homage to the community it serves.
“This could not be more grassroots of a fundraiser,” said Dorie Kirk, FWCC president. “There are going to be some very, very radical looks, and there are going to be some very soft looks, so just buckle up and ride the roller coaster with us.”
A Fort Worth Community Collaborative team member poses for a photo wearing the Take It look. (Courtesy | Fort Worth Community Collaborative)
The fashion show was split into two walk themes, with speeches given and awards honoring members handed out between shows. The Women in America-themed walk featured looks Kirk described as representing a snapshot of women’s lives in 2026. The second walk, themed Resist, was meant to show how FWCC supports its community and the gaps the organization feels they need to fill, including personal hygiene products.
All of the featured looks were auctioned to guests as part of the FWCC’s fundraiser, along with other thrifted items and gift baskets provided by sponsors. Of the 13 looks, eight were sold, with successful offers ranging from $10 to $50. The organization was able to raise over $2,000, which they said will help fund their next back-to-school event.
“I think it was a really natural fit to do a fashion show for Fort Worth Community Collaborative because we started with clothes and we have access to a lot of clothing,” Kirk said. “It was just a really fun way to process a lot of emotions through all the heavy work that we are constantly doing that we don’t have time to process.”
The FWCC opened its Cowtown Closet doors in Nov. 2024. It relocated from its original location at Westside Presbyterian Church and reopened its doors at 8645 Camp Bowie West Boulevard in March. In addition to clothing, it now provides free food access, hygiene and household products, and additional support services.
For Kirk, clothing access is inherently tied to a person’s dignity and identity. She said many people either cannot afford clothing or do not have the privilege of trying out a variety of styles due to prohibitive cost.
“Being able to have access to whatever clothing and saying, ‘Oh, that doesn’t fit me,’ or ‘Nope, I don’t like that anymore,’ is just such a beautiful, easy way to express yourself,” Kirk said.
At the show, Kirk introduced each model and explained what their outfits represented. Some looks protested the taxation of feminine hygiene products. Other themes included the struggles of women growing into adulthood. A modeled fishnet poncho included a list of the items FWCC provides for free to its customers, including condoms and tampons. An outfit titled “Donuts!” included black upcycled jeans with the words “Reject the criminalization of compassion!” written on them. The ensemble represented Kirk’s response to signs discouraging donations to panhandlers, she said.
The final look to walk featured a tote with a denim T-shirt and felt recreations of sticky notes, a nod to Kirk requesting that coalition members write down what it meant to work and volunteer for the FWCC.
The crowd cheered wildly as each model walked the faux runway at the All Peoples Church auditorium, interacting with attendees as they strolled. Laughs followed comedic outfits and antics, while the room occasionally fell silent for the somber ones.
Once the final model walked the stage, the crowd erupted in applause.
“We’ve grown from just doing clothes to just doing clothes and food to now we meet every single basic necessity within a really short time frame of five months,” Kirk said. “For us, this was really more of a celebration than it was a fundraiser. It felt really good to just celebrate with people that we did it, we made it.”
Bianca Rodriguez-Mora is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at bianca@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org/2026/07/16/fort-worth-community-collaboratives-fashion-show-walks-the-walk-for-clothing-access/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://fortworthreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=675452&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://fortworthreport.org/2026/07/16/fort-worth-community-collaboratives-fashion-show-walks-the-walk-for-clothing-access/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/fortworthreport.org/p.js”></script>