Spreading the Gold: Three Nights Inside House of Musa Fashion Week DC
By Skyy Wonders for IMARO Magazine and photographs by Skyy Wonders — with thanks to Fab Lane Media and Quade Media for the opportunity to cover these amazing events.
From a Black-owned marketplace on 7th Street to a full orchestra on 14th, House of Musa Fashion Week turned Washington, D.C. into three nights of runway, community, and gold.
Washington, D.C. doesn't need an introduction to power, but the week of September 1st, it got a lesson in a different kind, the kind built by Black designers, Black vendors, Black musicians, and a community that showed up every single night to prove it. House of Musa Fashion Week didn't just bring a runway to the District. It brought a thesis, and the thesis was gold: opportunity, ownership, and the people bold enough to spread both.
Tuesday belonged to Sandlot Uptown, where House of Musa opened the week with Urban Canvas, built around a simple idea: opportunity and ownership are the gold worth spreading. The night made its intentions known early, this wasn't a room built for standing still. People came ready to browse, to move, and to give back. Host Jonathan Balagizi carried the energy from one corner of the room to the next, while designer Dear Sylf translated the night's vision into looks on the runway. The Black Vendor Marketplace pulled a steady crowd all evening, the clothing drive collected donations at the door, and guests leaned all the way into the Urban Chic dress code. DJ PSmov and DJ Moezart traded off behind the decks and never let the tempo dip, from the opening hour to the last. Underneath the fashion and the beat, the real story of the night was ownership, black creatives building the marketplace, the runway, and the community around it, together. A night like that doesn't come together without backing, and Urban Canvas had it: BEN by Amazon, Industrial Bank, Afro+, A Toast to Hustle, FIT, Grey Goose, TopoChico, and Remitly all stood behind it.
By Wednesday, the week shifted gears. The Style Symposium Panel and Mixer took over Smoke & Mirrors, and this one leaned into conversation as much as it did fashion. A live violinist set the tone while an artist painted a dress in real time in front of the crowd, the kind of detail that makes you stop mid-step to watch. A panel of heavy hitters from across the fashion industry took the mic to talk shop, and the night still found room to close with a runway show before it was over. It was a room full of creatives talking to creatives, and capturing it felt less like documenting an event and more like sitting in on a family conversation about the future of the industry.
Then came Thursday, and House of Musa saved its biggest swing for last. Symphonies of Gold: An Orchestral Fashion Show took the concept of a runway show and rebuilt it from the ground up, a full orchestra, ballet dancers, models, and designers all sharing one stage, hosted by Queen Quade and Michael Mayowa Sonariwo. Backstage told its own story, hairstylists and makeup artists working in tight formation, stylists doing final fittings seconds before models hit the runway, the quiet chaos that always precedes something beautiful. Out front, the audience watched designers Musa the Brand, Saint Ola, Taryn Williams, Hollyandroo, Timmy Ajulo, Dear Sylf, and Fanny House Collection send look after look down the runway, each one earning its own reaction from the crowd. It was genius in execution and easily the most ambitious night of the week.
Three nights, three completely different rooms, and one throughline that never wavered, a community that builds for itself, celebrates itself, and hands the mic to the next designer, vendor, or creative coming up behind it. House of Musa didn't just put on a fashion week. It put on a blueprint. IMARO is grateful to have been in the room for it, and we're already looking forward to what House of Musa brings next.
Congratulations to the House of Musa team, hosts, designers, and sponsors on an unforgettable MUSA Fashion Week.
www.themusabrand.store | @_musathebrand