ENTERTAINMENT

Nutria-themed fashion show headed for Lafayette

Kris Wartelle
kwartelle@theadvertiser.com

Nutria-palooza sur la Coulée is not your average fashion show. It is part mission to save the wetlands, part movement to promote sustainable fur fashions.

The Righteous Fur Fashion Show & Wetlands Benefit Auction, featuring the latest in wearable nutria fur fashions, will take place at 6 p.m. Oct. 7 in Lafayette.

Organizers of Righteous Fur say they are on a save-the-wetlands mission to bring nutria fur to the contemporary fashion market.

Co-director Cree McCree, who founded the project, said the shows were sold out in New Orleans and New York and received a great response from Lafayette audiences in 2011.

Nutria-palooza sur la Coulée is sponsored in part by Bayou Teche Brewing, Saint Street Inn and Genterie Supply Co., while the fashions were created by Righteous Fur and Tchoup Industries designers from Lafayette and New Orleans.

Righteous Fur co-director Becky Schexnayder, who hosted the 2011 show, said Nutria-palooza will be staged at 140 Arlington Drive, right next to the Horse Farm nature preserve.

“It’s a beautiful, natural setting for sustainable fur fashions made from the byproducts of the Coastwide Nutria Control Program,” said Schexnayder.

McCree, who founded the project with mini-grants from the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, said the nutria control program pays $5 a tail for captured nutria to stop the marsh-munchers from destroying fragile wetlands. She said 98 percent of the animals killed are thrown back into the swamp.

“There’s two problems with that,” added Schexnayder. “Decaying depletes the water of oxygen, and all that beautiful fur is being wasted.”

McCree and Shexnayder said the fashion show will be a multimedia event featuring “Rodents of Unusual Size,” an offbeat documentary about the giant swamp-rat invasion and members of Cat Head Biscuit Boys, who go on a tail hunt.

The show will continue with models, wearing an array of nutria fashions, from elegant Mad Men-era cocktail wraps to surreal flights of fancy that recall the late Alexander McQueen.

Organizers said there are also educational programs planned around the Righteous Fur motto, “Save Our Wetlands — Wear More Nutria.”

The estuary program’s Michael Massimi and representatives from wildlife and fisheries will bring the audience up to date on the battle to save the wetlands, while volunteers from the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana will be on hand to get people involved.

A portion of all event proceeds goes to the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, which is working to protect and restore our sustainable coastal Louisiana.

Participating designers from Lafayette include; Becky Schexnayder, Valerie Billeaud, Margaret LaBry, Nicole LeBlanc, Catherine Schoeffler Comeaux, Kathy Dumesnil, Abigail Ransonet and Suzanne Chaillot.

Nutria-palooza sur la Coulée

6 p.m.-10 p.m., Oct. 7

Home of Becky Schexnayder

140 Arlington Drive, Lafayette

Complimentary Hors D’oeuvres by local restaurants

Cash Bar: Signature “$5 a Cocktail” drink, Bayou Teche Biere and wine

TICKETS:

Tickets”:$25 advance, $30 at the door

Advance tickets online: brownpapertickets.com/event/861658

Tickets can also be purchased at Genterie Supply Co., 210 E Vermilion St.