Jackson Free Press

April Sade, 28, aims to use her experience as a domestic-violence victim as fuel to generate a bigger spotlight on Mississippi and the untapped talent that it possesses. Sade has expertise in modeling, managing, entertainment and the arts.

Born in Jackson and raised in Atlanta, her roots in fashion began with her mother, Kathleen Smith, the owner of the now-defunct boutique, Panache. "(Fashion) seemed to be my upbringing and lifestyle," she says. Sade's mother even took her to John Casablancas Modeling and Career Centers in Atlanta when she was in high school.

After returning to Mississippi in 2004, Sade enrolled at Tougaloo College, where she became a member of The Modeling Squad. The troupe organized and participated in fashion shows on and off campus. "I pretty much decided that I wanted to dig a little deeper," Sade says. She wanted to know why the fashion scene in Mississippi wasn't as big as Atlanta's.

She began to look for an answer by mixing it up with locals involved with fashion, such as Thomas Roots, Becky Hicks and Mitch Davis. Along with her renewed fervor for the world of fashion, other big changes began to shake up April's life. In 2006, her mother closed Panache and moved to Dallas. In 2007, April gave birth to her son, Elijah. Around that same time, she got married.

Within the first year of her marriage, a violent domestic dispute derailed Sade's plans for a new life. Leaving Jackson and her marriage behind, she and her son boarded a Greyhound bus and moved to Dallas to be with her mother.

"I was exposed to a different fashion, a different culture (and) a different way of living there," she says. Sade called her fashion-forward friends in Jackson, intending to spark their interests in developing an organization. The only problem was coming back to the pain she had been through in her marriage.

But Sade says that she "wasn't done handling her business in Mississippi."

She and three friends began a fashion event and management agency under the name House of Panache, a nod to her mother and the boutique that introduced Sade to the industry.

The group has been hard at work putting together fashion shows in collaboration with local charities and stores to raise awareness of their causes, such as sickle cell anemia.

Sade is taking her commitment to the community a step further as the director of Teen Talent Camp. The summer program turns the Fondren neighborhood into a campus, as participants float between different venues, studios and theaters. "Campers," who are generally home-schooled and range in ages from 13 to 18, receive instruction in activities including runway modeling, acting and yoga.

"There needs to be an outlet for these kids," Sade says.