Tampa boasts its own growing pool of fashion-forward dressers and we seem to have accumulated a growing pool of talented designers as a result, the sort of creative minds who've elected to practice their craft here rather than be swallowed up by cities overrun with designers trying to make it big.
One designer, Ben Chmura, unveils his spring/summer 2007 collection this Saturday evening in his second Bay area runway show: Ozmapolitan, a combination of flirtatious, contemporary men's and women's sportswear and couture inspired in equal parts by The Wizard of Oz and Paris, his own Emerald City. A series of images by Ryan Prado that personify the characters of Chmura's Oz are also featured.
Ozmapolitan, 7:30 p.m. Sat., Nov. 4, Czar, 1420 E. Seventh Ave., Ybor City, $5, www.myspace.com/benchmura.
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2006.