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Jaimie Crush's passions include fashion, art, music and neuropsychology. The 20-year-old hails from Las Vegas, and works at Truckee Meadows Community College's Tutoring and Learning Center. Her latest feat was producing the Art + Fashion Fusion Show at the Holland Project, with proceeds benefiting the Nevada Youth Empowerment Project.

What made you host and produce a fashion show?

The event initially started as an idea to help promote an emerging gallery in town. My plan was to have a bit of a dressy event to mix things up a bit. I love all of the low-cost and free community art events in the area, but many of them are very casual. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I wanted to throw in something different—a low-cost dress-up event. I wanted to do this show because I wanted to combine art and fashion. I had already seen some examples with local movements like Fash Mob Reno, and I wanted to have something focusing on that concept.

What were the challenges?

The sheer number of people I needed to coordinate was mind-numbingly stressful. I never want to let people down when I’m the one that everyone is going to with questions and concerns, but at the same time, I’m only one person. Ticket sales and promotion were also a challenge. I luckily had quite a few people helping me with that, but it was very hard, especially when you consider that I’m a full-time student with a part-time job. The issue with these things isn’t necessarily how difficult they are; it’s having the time to invest in them.

Finding artists was also a challenge. I received a lot of inquiries from older artists, but I wanted to keep this show focused on the youth. There are so many talented young people in Reno, but since they haven't had as much time on this earth, they generally don't have large bodies of work for display, and finding those who had enough work to show was a bit difficult.

Is your family supportive of you?

My big brother is my biggest fan.

What organizations contributed to the fashion show?

So many organizations helped make this show amazing. Wedge Cheese Shop and The Isles Teashop donated food, and Neverender helped me with promotion and last-minute supplies. Pan Pantoja and Aric Shapiro of The Potentialist Workshop and Reno Art Works supplied the runway and the supplies to repaint it for the show. Artist Bryce Chisholm supplied the display grids for artists to show their work on—without him, all of the art would’ve been on the ground leaning against the walls. AKO Photography donated a free photo session for a raffle prize, and Valor Tattoo Parlor donated four tattoo gift certificates.

What was your favorite part of the fashion show?

That’s a really big question. I suppose it’s a tie between seeing how the audience received the fashion show itself and the musical performances by Johnny Bailey, Basha, and Busking by Moonlite. I know that fashion shows have a reputation for being boring, but the audience at Holland seemed genuinely excited, and that’s so awesome.

What are your future plans?

I want to grab a master’s in music and start studying neuropsychology. I’m also in a band, and I plan to start putting more of my time and energy there. I want to travel. I want to make art. I want to have a solo show in a gallery, at least one time. I want to do so much that I burn out, fly into the sun, and die in a blaze of glory.