Female strength and empowerment. That’s the story Denver-based fashion designer and entrepreneur Skye Barker Maa will tell with her collection, “Noir,” at the upcoming Carbondale Arts fashion show, “Camera Obscura.”

Just three years into her career as a designer, the 51-year old artist has found a passion for storytelling through fashion. 

With experience across multiple artforms — from starting a business for neighborhood music lessons to a black box theater program— Barker Maa complements her passion for design with a diverse artistic background that extends beyond traditional creative limits.

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Nearly all of her past ventures  were born from a community need, often driven by the artistic endeavors of her own children. 

“I definitely didn’t mean to start a music school when I did but I couldn’t find a piano teacher (for my son),” Barker Maa said. “I later became the executive director of a dance company for a period of time because my daughter was a dancer and I wanted to make sure the industry was being supported and built so she can come home to her mom….If she wants that, there is a place for her to live and thrive.”

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Inspired by her multi-talented music students, Barker Maa created a black box theater program.

She hired designers to teach costume creation classes, offering adults and students an opportunity to work behind the curtain while cutting costs for the community theater.

Through costume design and alterations, the artist immersed herself in Denver’s sewing scene.

It was after founding Factory Fashion Denver in 2019, an inclusive fashion design workshop and sewing school, that Barker Maa truly found her passion.

“Once I started Factory Fashion and I fell in love with fashion, it felt like it was time for me to pursue my own dream,” Barker Maa said. “It was really escalating what I was doing as a designer and I just decided it was time to fold everything down and and create a business for myself for the first time versus for someone else.”

Thus, SKYE|AIRE, her clothing label, was born.

Described by Barker Maa as moody avante-garde, asymmetrical lines, eye-catching prints and intriguing shapes are SKYE|AIRE staples.

The designer has showcased over 400 pieces at fashion shows around the world, from Paris to New Orleans. For her, each runway is an opportunity to create a distinctive narrative through music, choreography and of course, fashion.

“When I first started learning about the industry, it was because I was bringing a bunch of fashion designers or costumers in to teach sewing classes,” Barker Maa said. “So I started to familiarize myself with some of the issues that are facing the industry, but more importantly, I started designing. That’s what really taught me the most about the industry — trying to learn how to maneuver it and learn how important it is to tell a story through fashion.

“That’s ultimately what led me to love it so much, for it to be sort of consuming, is the opportunity to tell runway stories,” she added.

Barker Maa will open the sold-out 14th annual Carbondale Arts fashion show from March 6-8 with a collection that veers in a different direction — elegant, beautiful gowns inspired by film noir. 

The story she’ll tell is one of female strength and empowerment, underlined by the inherent might of the models she will work with. 

“If I were going to huddle my models up, I would tell them, ‘This is your chance,'” Barker Maa said. “‘This is your chance to say what you want when you want to say it.’

“All those scenarios you get into where someone says something to you and you don’t have the right comeback, or you’re taking the highroad and don’t fire somebody up that you should fire up, and then you go home and stand in front of the mirror and let loose,” she added. “This is your chance to be the person who actually lets loose.”