Heart of it All Fashion will be taking its first flight this weekend.

“Our brand is similar to the birth of aviation in Ohio in that we’re taking off. This is our first show — first endeavor,” he said.

Heart of it All Fashion was formed last fall by current Ohio State students Aaron Carey and Nadiyah Harper with the intention of putting on a fashion show. It has since grown to more than 50 members, and the upcoming fashion experience weekend has expanded to four events: an art exhibition, street vendor marketplace and two fashion shows.

Each of the four events of the group’s fashion experience is themed around flight, inspired by Ohio being the birthplace of aviation.

Austin Garofolo, a fourth-year in political science with a minor in fashion and retail, is the creative director for the event, which he said shares a pioneer spirit with early aviation.

“We decided that we needed to have an event to discover what our strengths would be as an organization. We’ve taken a lot on, we’ve been pretty ambitious to have four events for our first showcase. We’ve gotten a lot of support from businesses, brands, boutiques, designers from all over the state. That’s really made the experience much easier,” Garofolo said.

The first event of the weekend, the 17th Dissent Art Exhibition, will take place on Friday from 4 to 11 p.m. at Dude Locker, a warehouse located at 527 E. Hudson St. usually used for band practices, according to its website.

The fusion of music and art is a running theme for the 17th Dissent Art Exhibition. It includes musical acts ranging from rap to pop to spoken word during the entirety of the event. The exhibition is sponsored by the Fashion Meets Music Festival, a two-day festival that takes place in September.

“I’m really excited to have them working with us. Just that fusion of culture as it relates to fashion and music is a perfect fit,” said Jasmine Smith, a 2012 OSU graduate and organizer of the exhibition.

There is about a 50-50 split, Smith said, between OSU students and other artisans around the state on display, and there will be pieces available for purchase. Hors d’oeuvres will also be served.

“I’m very passionate about bringing people into a creative space and culminating that talent. As important as fashion is, this art exhibition engulfs everything about creative processes with visual art and performance art,” she said.

From 12 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, people can take part in HOA Avenue, which will feature clothing and accessories vendors, pop-up shops and food trucks either inside Dude Locker or outside on Hudson Street, depending on weather.

The Turbulence Streetwear Fashion Show will be later that evening in the RPAC South Gym from 6 to 9 p.m. It will feature ready-to-wear pieces, many of which will be available to purchase after the show. The show is sponsored by Dr. Martens, which will supply many of the shoes for the models, and is the only designer featured that is not based in Ohio, Garofolo said.

One of the designers featured in The Turbulence Streetwear Fashion Show is Aldo Corona, a fourth-year in fashion and retail studies who also designed the logo and all of the advertising for the events.

Corona uses silk screening to create T-shirts and pullovers for his line, Nile Clothing Co., and he hopes to expand into hoodies, hats, socks and more in the future.

“It’s kind of just poking fun at pop culture and changing perception of how you see certain things,” Corona said of his grafitti-inspired line.

The finale of the fashion experience is the Flight HOA 1803 Designer Fashion Show. It will feature one-of-a-kind pieces made by designers from Columbus, as well as cities all over the state of Ohio. The doors open at 4 p.m., which gives the audience time to look at raffle items, with the show to start at 5 p.m.

The Exhibition and HOA Avenue are free and general admission tickets for each of the fashion shows are $10 for students and $15 for non-students.

VIP tickets are $20 for students and $25 for non-students, and include 10 raffle tickets, better seating and a “swag bag” full of items from sponsors of the event.

Tickets can be purchased online at Heart of it All’s website or at the door of any of the events.

Heart of it All gave tickets to sell to Little Fish, an organization that gives a creative outlet to developmentally disabled adults, and the Thaakat Foundation, an organization that builds schools in Pakistan. The groups got to keep half of their profits from selling the tickets. Artwork from Little Fish will also be on display at the exhibition. The money from any other ticket sales will go into funding next year’s event.

“It’s not just ‘let’s try to raise money,’ It’s more about ‘let’s have a good experience.’ Let’s have fun, let’s make people want to come to this again next year and talk about it,” Garofolo said.

Garofolo also said, “There’s something enjoyable for everyone to go to any of our experiences … Fashion is something that we all participate in to some degree.”