Richmond Frocktails is more than just a locally-focused fashion show with booze, says Karen Keech Swerling. “It’s about getting people to sew and to come together in friendship.”
The third installment of this fundraising event for the group, Richmond Really Sews, Frocktails is slated for Nov. 2 at Triple Crossing Beer in Fulton. For more than a decade, sewing enthusiasts have been hosting so-called Frocktails parties in cities across the world, from Melbourne, Australia (where it started) to Glasgow, Scotland to Atlanta, Georgia. The first Richmond Frocktails was held at the Branch Museum of Architecture in 2022.
The rules behind the shindig are really simple, says Swerling, the founder and director of Richmond Really Sews: “You make a frock, you show up and you get a cocktail.” In this case, frock means a costume, a dress, a suit—anything you can wear. And if female attendees can’t make their own frock, there will be some available on site for them.
A veteran Hollywood costume designer, Swerling moved to Richmond eight years ago, and started her sewing circle in 2021, first as a Facebook group. It has since grown to become an area resource and meeting place for both avid and novice “sewists” (she prefers that term to “seamstress”), attracting amateur threaders who meet and stitch at various locations across the city, including Swerling’s own home-base “sewing center” in the Fan.
“COVID was a horrible event,” she says. “But it spurred people into getting out their sewing machines and making masks. So I said, ‘Hey, now that you’ve made masks, you can make a T-shirt or a skirt … keep making something.”
“I would say it’s an unusual group,” says Jonathan Bennett. More than a sewing circle, Richmond Really Sews is a social club, a support group, and an educational hub for amateur garment makers. Frocktails allows the sewists to show off their finest work, and themselves, in a special fashion show. “You don’t have to be a Victoria’s secret model, stepping like a camel to model an outfit,” he says. “You just need to walk and show that thing off. Let the garment speak.”
Bennett, the co-host and director of the fashion show, will be among the 47 sewists slated to model their creations on the runway. One of a handful of dudes in this mostly female setup—”men need to sew too,” he says—Bennett studied fashion design at Virginia Commonwealth University and owns his own upholstery business in Lakeside, Unsprung Upholstery Co. (which is sponsoring the event). “It runs the gamut of people,” he says of Richmond Really Sews. “They could be nurses, housewives, corporate people, anybody. The majority are brand new to the sewing scene and want to learn. We have monthly meetups at Publix in Carytown and, when I’ve attended, it’s had a full room and there’s always a topic, like how to use a serger or how to work with African textiles.”
Bennett attended the 2023 Frocktails and modelled two different sequin jackets, precursors to the splashy black velvet number he’ll be sporting this year (“it’s very Liberace”). “It was a wonderful event, well attended. A friend of mine, also in the group, has been to several different Frocktails in other places and seems to think the one here in Richmond far exceeds the others.” That may be attributed to the fashion show. “We are the only Frocktails that actually puts on a show,” Swerling says. “All the others, it’s just a bunch of women at a cocktail party.”
For this year’s event, Swerling has introduced a theme based on Wes Anderson’s 2014 film, “Grand Budapest Hotel. “The colors enveloped you,” she says of the film. “My sewists, some of them didn’t like the movie or were confused, I told them to think grand, challenge themselves, or think about Budapest, something exotic. Or a hotel, think like you’re on a vacation.”
Frocktails has become the annual fundraiser for a growing enterprise—from a few dozen members, RRS now has more than 2,600 on Facebook. “There will be a silent auction too,” says Julie Tashner. “The money we raise will help with buying materials that are needed, and offering sewing classes for free.”
Tashner, a professional home organizer who is overseeing this year’s event, has been a regular member of RRS since 2022. She got back into sewing when she began making clothes for her toddler daughter. She has created four outfits for three different models to wear during the show. She’s overseeing her own evening wear as well as casual leisure wear, and her five-year-old daughter Norah and a classmate will show off matching dresses of her design.
“I love the idea that Karen had of doing the fashion show and having the people who made the outfits model them,” she says. “The majority of the people in this group would not do something like this otherwise. A lot of sewists are introverts, myself included, so to put a spotlight on us, and to do this, it’s out of our comfort zone.”
Tashner wasn’t inspired by Wes Anderson’s film, however. She found her chosen fabrics and designs months before this year’s theme was announced. “I watched the movie and enjoyed it, but most people hadn’t seen it … It’s meant to inspire. Karen really likes for people to reach beyond what they would typically do.”
“I love for the sewists to challenge themselves. This is all about getting people to sew,” says Swerling. “And getting them to come together in friendship.”
Richmond Frocktails at Triple Crossing Beer on Saturday, Nov. 2. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., showtime 7 p.m. $45 VIP tickets $65 For more, go to https://rvasews.wixsite.com/richmond-really-sews
