‘Dark Beauty: The Final Bow’ embraces darkness, raises funds with theatrical fashion show
On Saturday, “Dark Beauty: The Final Bow” was presented at The Treasury’s Palladian Hall. The fashion show was co-produced by fashion photographer Laura Marino and professional makeup artist Alexandra Axenfeld. Joe Zhao | Design Editor
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Picture a classic New York Fashion Week show. Models strut down a runway, pose for the crowd and then make their way backstage.
But at the Palladian Hall on Saturday evening, 44 models took a different approach, embodying their own distinct character on the runway.
While guests dressed in sparkles and suits enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at candlelit tables, performers flaunted feathered headdresses, knee-high black latex boots, teased updos and trains of grey tulle as they performed to the beat of foreboding music.
“It’s a combination of the art that you’re seeing and the styles themselves, as well as the movements and the choreography that comes from each person,” model Chloe Corvidae said.
On Saturday evening, fashion photographer Laura Marino and professional makeup artist Alexandra Axenfeld presented “Dark Beauty: The Final Bow” at The Treasury’s Palladian Hall in downtown Syracuse. It’s the third runway show they’ve co-produced together, and featured fantasy-inspired designs, makeup and hair.
In May 2024, Marino’s husband, Kevin Warner, was involved in a motorcycle accident that permanently paralyzed him from the waist down. “The Final Bow” served as a benefit to raise money for the Syracuse Spinal Association.
The fashion show benefitted the Syracuse Spinal Association and channeled Marino’s difficult times in its storytelling. Each piece conveyed a different message or scene tied to obstacles Marino has overcome. Joe Zhao | Design Editor
With help from Axenfeld, Marino conceptualized and designed each model’s outfit to fit their personality. Marino decided to channel the difficult time she and her family experienced into positive energy to create this show, she said.
Marino wanted the show to feel like a basketball game, specifically encouraging the audience to cheer for the performers as they made their way down the runway.
“What you give, they’ll give back,” Marino said.
Aerial artists LUX and NOX started off the evening, embracing each other as they spun around a pole in their performance as two lovers. Following the pair was an opening dance number by Artistic Designs Dance Company. Performers lifted each other into the air while dancing in unison to haunting instrumental music.
The dancers said this kind of show was a different experience for them compared to the dance competitions they’re used to. While they concluded their dance number, the dancers got to interact with the models and introduce them as they started down the runway.
Each performance piece and outfit conveyed a different message or scene tied to obstacles Marino has overcome, the models said. Every performer wore their own look, and the variety of designs felt “like Christmas” for dancer Braelyn Salomon to see.
“Dance and modeling aren’t necessarily similar, but both are definitely a little more abstract, so seeing something that was also as abstract as dance, but in a different form, was really cool,” Gia Sacco, a dancer, said. “It was cool we could share and exchange our ideas and what we love to do.”
Addison Salomon sat in the crowd watching her younger sister, Braelyn Salomon, perform on the runway. As someone who’d performed in Marino and Axenfeld’s previous shows, Addison admired how they reused pieces from past shows to style them in a new way on different models.
Amongst the chain mail, spikes and black leather, Addison noticed how the show’s theme didn’t just embody darker looks, but also light, feminine looks.
“(Marino) had a lot of range within the dark concept,” Addison said. “A lot of the first outfits were black and dark greys, but then there’s also some reds and the floral which you wouldn’t exactly expect in a dark theme like this.”
The show featured a variety of looks, despite its title “Dark Beauty: The Final Bow.” It featured pieces ranging from spikes and black leather to pink and floral. Joe Zhao | Design Editor
The night’s theatrical nature made it more than just a fashion show — Marino and Axenfeld aimed for it to be a performance, with each model displaying their own persona and telling a story through each piece. Models performed and moved with the music, beckoning to the audience with outstretched arms.
“There’s a lot of different things we also played with throughout the show,” model Paige Polchowski said. “It’s really a theatrical, kind of playing with the audience, kind of performance.”
From two models portraying eerie twins in grey wigs, to another pair acting out a knighting ceremony, every look and performance was different.
One model even walked out sporting black feather wings and a whip while Rihanna’s “S&M” played over the speakers.
Polchowski loved the way everyone cheered each other on. The positive environment Marino and Axenfeld curated, along with the energy from the audience, boosted the models’ confidence on the runway.
“It’s empowering to have a group of powerful young women who are also coming together with someone who is such a strong leader and ultimately creating her vision as well as fighting for a really important cause too,” Corvidae said.
