People who know me know that I love to ask questions that generally lead to "six degrees of separation." Asking those questions usually leads to a discussion of sewing, and you know how much I love that. Recently I was asked to attend St. Louis Fashion week. Shouldn't need to tell you that it was in Missouri but I do not want to forget to tell you that it was great! This event was really organized and full of surprises. Night one was hosted by Jillian Lewis of Project Runway fame. The event began with some very ordinary looking models strolling (not strutting) down the runway. That seemed odd and we quickly learned why....it was actually the intro for an episode of "What Not to Wear" Out came Stacy London and Clinton Kelly and they quickly got busy finding their next fashion failure and plucked her from the audience and made the offer to "do her over" from head to toe. It was fun and I really can't wait to see how the girl looks without her furry boots and acrylic hair extensions. After that it was on with the show. The designers in the first event participated in Project Design, a contest sponsored by Brother International Corporation and hosted by Jillian Lewis of Project Runway fame. It was another exciting moment when I spoke and made the presentation of the Brother Project Runway LB6770 Sewing and Embroidery machine. The winner was Jelek and one of her winning garments is shown below. It was fantastic! Jelek was most deserving of the award!
The event was filled with lots of other fun experiences as well. The vendor area had the usual jewelry designers, clothing creators, make up artists, etc. By far one of the most unique was a couple who created custom bustiers for dress wear or underwear! They were cool!
On Friday the Divas from DIY-Style gave their first fashion show and it was another well prepared for event. The four young ladies who participated gave attendees a wonderful presentation of outfits to commemorate their support of *** cancer research, swim and resort wear, terrific silk cocktail dresses and of course a wedding dress. The model who was lucky enough to model this great gown was caught completely off guard when her fiancé popped the big question from the audience. She accepted his proposal and the wedding plans are underway! DIY-Style is based out of St. Louis and the designers that we met hasd just graduated from a local design school this year. Apparently the newly appointed Dean of their college was so impressed that she is going to host a repeat of this fabulous fashion show at the college in December. She was very proud of her students and wants to use their success to attract new students! On November 20 I will be visiting DIY-STYLE to tape a vod cast so keep posted for that story! If you know any young sewers they will love becoming a free subscriber to their vodcasts. Visit www.diystyle.net to see how much fun the Divas have.
There were plenty of cocktail events as well and trust me, everyone wanted to talk about sewing at those events too! The St. Louis Brother dealer was on hand too. Brother would not have had the great appearance that we did in the vendor area with out the support of Heyde Sewing. Karen and Jim Warren were great!
A few days after I returned home I headed to Panama to meet more people who wanted to talk about sewing. In this country Brother has a wonderful following and lots of people have bought the PR-650 so they can start a business. I got to meet a young gal of 18 who's dad decided that since she has a degree in graphic arts then she should open a business for screenprinting and embroidery. The perfect machine for her was the PR-650 and not long after opening day she had an order to embroider shirts for employees of her dad's spice factory. She will do great I am sure. The following day we met several hundred people who are involved in selling Brother printers but they were totally blown away by our embroidery machines and you could honestly see visitors to our booth think about how they could start their own business with an embroidery machine. They especially liked our Photostitch samples!
Well folks that's is about it for this week. Have a great day!
June