Acadiana Fashion Week, a week-long fashion event celebrating the artistic excellence of the Acadiana region, both on and off the runway, featured two of New Iberia’s best this year: Mike Smith and Jenna Adcock.

Mike Smith, Photographer and AFW Co-Founder

New Iberia native Mike Smith, owner of Mike D. Photography, is not only a world-renowned fashion photographer, but also one of Acadiana Fashion Week’s founding trio that has helped to develop AFW into the success it is today.

Beginning in 2017 as a way to highlight the talented models and fashion designers of Acadiana, AFW has grown exponentially each year to become the area’s premier fashion event.

“We started this in maybe in 2017 and Morgan (Pete) kind of had this idea, like, ‘hey, I want to bring something to Lafayette, where we all have the opportunity to travel to be a part of different fashion pieces and stuff like that,’” Smith explained. “Since she was a model and I was a photographer, she reached out to me with this idea. Now we’re 8 years strong and, right now, it’s truly smooth sailing, so I’m appreciative of everyone who has worked so hard to make it what it is today.”

The event quickly outgrew its humble beginnings, now hosting events all across Lafayette and culminating in a two-day show with fashion designers and models from across the area.

“We started at a very small venue with maybe 120 people in attendance, which I think is still a lot,” Smith said of AFW’s early days. “Now, eight years later, we’re here at the CajunDome and we’re packing out shows. We have at least 250 or 300 people every night and we had 200 people at the casting. It’s really an eye-opener, especially for a place like Acadiana who doesn’t really don’t really don’t get the recognition when it comes to fashion and stuff, to see that people had that much of an interest in it is just really unbelievable.”

Smith’s journey to being one of the top fashion photographers in the state all began at the age of 19 when he decided that he wanted to focus on photography as a profession and not just a hobby. Smith, a 2011 graduate of New Iberia Senior High School, pursued a degree in visual arts from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette while developing his photography business.

His first model, a friend of his who participated in AFW for the first time this year, helped to kick-start his career, and he’s never looked back.

“I’ve been doing photography professionally for 10 years now, starting when I was 19, when I decided I wanted to take it professionally. Once I decided that this is what I wanted to do, I reached out to one of my best friends and I was like, ‘can I take some photos of you?’”

Once Smith had taken the first step into professional photography, he knew he needed to make the most of his youthful vigor and work to get his brand in front of the biggest names in the game.

“You know, when you’re that young photographer, you want to go and be everywhere, so I wasn’t afraid to get on a plane and go,” he said. “I made really good connections out here and also, you know, in New York and LA and stuff like that.”

Smith said he was able to leverage connections from one of his friends to get his foot in the door when traveling outside of Louisiana.

“One of my good friends, John Weatherall, he’s already into the media and the news and stuff, so he shared with me different connections to celebrities, agents or different models,” Smith explained. “I’m appreciative of that, it’s really all about networking.”

Smith’s portfolio has amassed an impressive array of models and celebrities, including Vogue magazine and actress Ryan Destiny.

Despite all that he has accomplished, Smith still has a few bucket list items that he hopes to check off in the near future, the biggest one being an opportunity to photograph the Met Gala.

“I want to be able to get to the Met Gala,” he said. “I know a lot of times you have to be hired by a certain publication or have an agent, but I’m not going to give up on that dream.”

Joining Smith at this year’s Acadiana Fashion Week events was recent Loreauville High School graduate Jenna Adcock.

Jenna Adcock, Model

Adcock had always been interested in fashion and modeling, something that she believes is an easy transition from her festival pageant background.

“One of my friends actually participated in fashion week last year and she kind of got into modeling, which is kind of always something that I wanted to do,” Adcock explained. “I always love taking pictures and I got into pageants and I was always around the camera, so I just thought it was a great opportunity to see if I liked it and open up more opportunities.”

According to Adcock, AFW models go through a rigorous selection process, which began months ago, before they ever have a chance to hit the runway.

“In February, I attended a casting call where we did our walk in front of judges. They took videos (of us) to show designers, and then the designers got to pick who they wanted to walk for them. When I was selected I was so excited. I started preparing and practicing more because, honestly, I didn’t know much about it and I didn’t really know where to start. So I was very excited to be a part of something big.”

Adcock is currently serving at Teen Miss Iberia and will be attending South Louisiana Community College in the fall to pursue a nursing degree. She believes the experience she gained from competing in festival pageants gave her a leg up in her preparation for AFW.

“I think pageant’s help, because being on stage in front of people and just always around the camera and being the attention that kind of definitely helped,” she said. “We were supposed to have an orientation where they were kinda gonna give us some tips, but that didn’t end up going through so I kind of just watched videos. My mom has been sending me videos and kind of just practicing on my own and I would go on Instagram and watch other models walk.”

While modeling can provide a number of different career paths, Adock said she is most interested in becoming a brand ambassador. That interest played a big part on which day of Acadiana Fashion Week she found herself enjoying the most.

“I really liked the business in fashion talk, cause you got to hear from other makeup artists and business owners and see their perspective, and it really opened my eyes up to a whole different world, stuff I had never been used to,” she explained.