Cultures of the World Fashion Show

Celebrating cultural diversity through a showcase of customs and clothing

An Indian woman in her native dress

Libraries are for everyone, and while partnering with the YMCA to celebrate Welcoming Week, we highlighted this by hosting a fashion show of cultural dress, which represented the diversity of customers our library served. The event was multi-faceted and included both digital and in-person elements to reach a wider audience. Cultural representatives participated in both a digital interview via Facebook Live stream and modeled their fashions via a cat walk past an audience.

The event was huge success with participants representing 15 countries to an audience of over 40 members and our Facebook Live stream exceeding 3,500 views. (Check out the Facebook Live video to the left of this paragraph!) Some of our countries represented included Eritrea, Canada, India, South Korea, Norway, Iraq, Germany, Nigeria, and many others.

Participants expressed that they felt represented by the library and were excited to have an opportunity to take pride in their cultural heritage by showing it off at the library.

Audience members reflected that they had no idea there was such cultural diversity in our town and that they felt honored to take part in this celebration of our town's diversity.

Though everyone enjoyed attending or participating in our library's cultural heritage fashion show, the most important aspect of it was to show the robust diversity of that composes the American public. All Americans have a heritage, and Americans are unique in that we celebrate and cherish that heritage. By using the library as a programming venue and working with YMCA's Welcoming Week we were able to highlight this American tradition and make clear that, really, all are welcome and worthy of celebration at the public library.