Watching Dreams Walk Down The Catwalk

Last updated on April 1st, 2012 at 02:36 pm

I had the opportunity to watch dreams take flight this past week.

San Francisco Design Week took place all over the city covering design from all elements from June 14-19. AIGA SF sponsored the city wide event.

A happy coincidence was the rearranging of the THREAD event to wrap up the week. THREAD is a dynamic one day retail environment event brings together dozens of independent designers in all arenas – clothing, jewelry, accessories and more.

Since my son has his eye focused on fashion design, I thought the  THREAD show would give him a great opportunity to chat up the designers and find out how they do what they do. I drug my son Jake, my sister Dawn and my niece down with us for the day.

How did they get started?

How long have they been doing this?

What is their biggest challenge?

Well, that was my idea, but I forgot I was talking to a 15 year old.

His answer to my suggestions?

“I prefer to observe from afar.” Super helpful.

So I dove in and talked to people, finding out about their start, inspiration, if they had a website (I had to throw in a little networking too) and basically admiring the huge amount of talent on display.

One of the first designers that caught our eye was Demise Apparel.

I loved the graphic intensity, but the subtlety, color selection and placement of the printing made it stand out. My sister loved it since their signature logo is a “D” and her name is Dawn and she can never find cool stuff with that initial.

Jake loves it since even the skull cool factor has a design edge.

After talking to lots of incredible designers and our very first fashion show in person – the kids were enthralled – we made is through the rest of the designer showcases and I noticed Jake was in a deep conversation with a designer.

I was checking out their clothes when Jake announced “Hey mom, I’m doing what you told me to!”

Carlos Hernandez of Muz Wear Urbn Grmnts was the perfect person for Jake to pick his brain. He shared his education, details on how he is where he is today, and if it weren’t for their being based in L.A., Jake would have a perfect intern job next summer!

Yes, we spent some money, and sort of killed our budget, but how often do I get out? To the city?

For shopping.

I got over it.

After dinner and getting turned around a bit, we made it to our final destination of the day – The Art Institute of California San Francisco’s 2010 Student Fashion Show “United Streets of Fashion“.

We had the cheap seats and came in late among the uber fashionable so we found the best spot to view the show – from the 4th floor.

The designs, innovation and interest kept coming.

I had to finally move over to talk to Dawn since both the kids were so focused they wouldn’t respond.

Some incredible dresses, gowns, and urban wear kept coming. They huge big screen TV made our perch above it all bearable. The music, the lights, the reality walking in front of us was pretty impressive.

As a follower of Project Runway, the experience of the pounding music and lights and crowd made this a great event.

One of the most shocking things at the end of the show, was how young all the designers looked. I know these are young college kids, but damn! I may be showing my age, but the young talent was a blast to witness.

This event is on my agenda for next year.

Where does your talent lie?

Have you been keeping your fashion diva hiding?

How do you express your creativity?

The inspiration I got from this weekend has kicked my creative energy into gear.

Congrats to all the participants for taking the first catwalk on the way to their dream.

~ Heather

Heather’s dream is to have multiple streams of income, starting with launching an e-commerce website that showcases her one-of-a-kind designer jewelry, which are crafted by her. Her newly launched sites are couture jewelry available through For Your Adornment, and Twitter background designs on Twitter And Beyond Dot Com. She also teaches Social Media tactics for business, besides being CEO of her own web design company. Heather’s post day is Thursday.