Edith Porter-Liddell is already a four-year runway veteran. And she’s only nine years old.
Porter-Liddell was part of a group of about 30 models, young and old, who strolled down the runway in the latest fashions in work wear, church wear and evening wear Sunday at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Center, 1655 Foster St.
“It was kind of fun to model,” Porter-Liddell said after the Foster Senior Citizens Club’s 38th Annual Fashion Show and Tea. Some of the models were members of the Foster Senior Citizens Club, while others were friends and relatives of group members.
The models wore their own clothes, displaying outfits in three different categories: sportswear and work attire, church and dress attire, and gala evening and after five wear.
Foster Senior Citizens Club member Elsie Liddell said the fashion show is the group’s only fund raiser, which helps the club pay for different outings.
“We consider this our community meeting,” Liddell told the audience at the beginning of the show. “This is what helps us do the things we try to do.”
Liddell said this year’s turnout of 50 people was smaller than normal because a few group members had to be at another event.
Bernice Holmes, who joined the group in 1982 said the group charged $5 per ticket, and the event usually brings in about $1,000.
“We don’t charge much, so we don’t make much,” Holmes said.
As the models paraded their outfits, commentator Emily Mills-Palmer described the different ensembles, occasionally adding her own colorful commentary such as “She’s wearing it, ain’t she?” “Go strut your stuff, show them where it’s at,” and “Go on, girl. Walk your walk.”
Mills-Palmer said she had not planned her commentary before the show.
“I thought about writing something down,” she said. “But I’m a nut by nature, so I just ad-libbed.”
This is the third year Mills-Palmer has been the commentator for the event, but this will probably be her last year, although she says she enjoys it.
“They always do a good job,” she said. “Foster seniors are very feisty.”
Westchester, Ill., resident Linda Suggs and her niece each modeled an outfit in this year’s show. Suggs said she has participated for the past four or five years because her mother, Theola Murphy, is a member of the Foster Senior Citizens Club.
“You know how mothers are,” Suggs said. “You don’t have a choice. It’s more like I was told rather than asked.”
Nancy Brown, a first-timer at the event, said the show was a chance to meet people she doesn’t often see.
“It was just fabulous,” Brown said. “It just added something to fall.”
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