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Indianapolis Fashion Collective

July 24th, 2010

Silver and Lavender silk set, Sweet Revenge Lingerie. Photo by Polina Osherov.

I’m very pleased to announce the founding of a group called Indianapolis Fashion Collective. The group is brand-spanking new, having just received its name this past week. I’m raising a glass of iced coffee to thank the founding members who have been and will continue to be passionate enough about fashion in Indianapolis to grow this group.

Let me tell you how it began, and where we’re headed.

One of the founding forces in Indianapolis is Midwest Fashion week, and the creative mind behind that happens to be Berny Martin of Catou. Martin has great hopes for Indianapolis’ fashion scene, and has worked hard over the past several years to create a name for MWFW. Each year the show grows in attendance and events. Yes, it has had some growing pains, but all in all MWFW has been a spur that pushed local designers to move further ahead.

This past March, one of the events that Martin assembled was the Fashion Incubator, arranged in coordination with the IndyFringe. Pauline Moffat (Executive Director) and Jill Ditmire (Vice President) acted as host and mediator to a panel of speakers, who addressed topics such as funding for emerging designers, work spaces, how to keep talent in the area, and creation of a fashion district. The event was attended by students, teachers, designers, photographers and journalists.

I felt the event was a great beginning, but my fear was there would be absolutely no follow-up. My fear was unfounded. A core group of people become very interested in pursuing the idea, and Ditmire took on the task of corralling us together to meet again and make serious plans. After a few meetings (and a bit of wine supplied by Mass Ave Wine Shop), we have a solid mission and a list of action items…and progress.

Our Mission:

Unite, Empower, Showcase and Grow the Indianapolis area fashion industry through collaboration, education and awareness.

Goals:

-Web presence
-Destination/Tourism
-Marketing/Events
-Mentoring/Funding
-Manufacturing/sourcing
-Partnerships

Along with making the group official (and addressing the needs of creating a not-for-profit status), the top two goals that we have been tackling are creating a web presence, and finding the ideal area to start a fashion district.

I should mention here that other city groups are working closely with Indianapolis Fashion Collective, and we value their collaboration highly. IFC needs to have a professional, unbiased eye that only a city-sponsored not-for-profit can have. Susan Brasco (head of Motorsports and Fashion for Develop Indy), Pauline Moffat and Jill Ditmire of IndyFringe, Tamara Zahn (President of Indianapolis Downtown, Inc.), Berny Martin (Midwest Fashion Week) and newly Tammi Hughes (Executive Director of East 10th Street Civic Association) will all be connecting with the group in various ways. What continues to surprise me is not just how many people are interested in supporting the fashion industry, but the fact that we have all been working separately to achieve the same goals.

Hence: Unite. IFC doesn’t need to achieve all of its goals on its own, but we wants to support the building of the infrastructure that the industry needs to blossom.

Stay Tuned:

Keep an eye out for news from the Indianapolis Fashion Collective. We’re working on developing a website that will be a hub for the industry in the Indianapolis area. Some features of the website will be a comprehensive directory of industry members (designers, sales reps, photographers, to name a few categories), a forum for local industry discussions, an interactive calendar of fashion related events, and links to resources in the area.

If you are interested to hear more about the website, or wish to contribute services to the IFC, please .

Tags: designers, Develop Indy, fashion, fashion incubator, Indianapolis, Indianapolis Downtown Inc., IndyFringe, MWFW
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Cabaret Lingerie: Nikki Sutton, Stylist

March 21st, 2010

Elissa wearing B Trousseau top, Cheeky Couture jewels and Emilliner hat

Whew! Midwest Fashion Week just ended and not a moment too soon! Running out of steam and feeling the need to get back into the real world of work. Meanwhile I just wanted to say a little about the experience of creating the Cabaret Lingerie show, which I feel did exactly what I had hoped it to do: make people sit up and take notice, and question what makes fashion.

Integral to the show was Nikki Sutton, a stylist and interior designer (and often a model herself). She came to the project in midstream, and took the torch and ran, ran, ran with it. (Totally mixed metaphors, there.)

Our concept: take a number of local resources (including Sweet Revenge Lingerie one-offs) and combine them to create a fantasy look, lingerie but much more: Cabaret Lingerie. Showy, over the top, high fashion. The result was beyond my expectations! Sutton came up with a story by which to arrange the show, the progression of love. First we saw the angelic looks (though they were far from tame), in whites, cream, pink touches. Then as love blossoms, so does the color…in spring greens, corals, pinks, aqua. And finally, as love turns, the colors darken into browns, blacks and the accessories become more aggressive. Almost every look was accompanied by a sculptural hat by Emilliner (a local hat designer), and Cheeky Couture jewelry.

Michelle wearing SR bustier, Nikki Blaine shorts, Emilliner hat

To balance the stylized look of the show, we staged the fashion show a little differently as well. The models were paced much more slowly, and encouraged to engage the audience as well as the male model who spent much of the time onstage as a foil to the ladies. Actor Rob Johansen worked with the models to create an improvised scene at the end of the show, in place of a Designer Walk. The models fought for the male model’s attention, and then descended on him like a flock of ravens (in their blacks, complete with a few feathers) for a dramatic end to the show.

Many thanks to everyone who helped to make the show a success–all told I believe there were as many as thirty people involved just on the day of the show, for a twenty minute show. Pictures shown courtesy of Mariah at Nuvo.

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