PITTSBURGH’S ‘PROJECT RUNWAY’
Do fashion shows here help or hurt local designers? Depends on who you ask ...
Once upon a time — let’s say six or seven years ago — it was common to ask, “Where are all the fashion events in Pittsburgh?”
Sure, there were charity functions that touted a runway show as their main attraction and the occasional student showcase, but fashion shows that present the city’s burgeoning bunch of designers with a platform to show off their work for other industry professionals were few and far between.
Nowadays, Pittsburgh’s social calendar is packed with fashion events beyond the philanthropic community. In 2010, actress and model Miyoshi Anderson created Pittsburgh Fashion Week, which brought fashion shows to venues across Pittsburgh each September for six years. Then came Style Week Pittsburgh, a network for fashion professionals to meet and mingle through mixers, fashion shows, an awards ceremony and vendor markets. The brainchild of event producer and marketing professional Wadria Taylor, it marked its fifth anniversary in August.
After Pittsburgh Fashion Week halted its events, the Pittsburgh Downtown Community Development Corp. introduced Fashion Week Downtown in 2016 to fill the void.
But are these and other fashion-focused events doing their part to elevate designers’ careers? It depends on who you ask. “I’m frustrated,” says Bradford Mumpower, who’s been sewing for 10 years and designing clothes for about four years, particularly one-of-a-kind pieces in rich colors with a twist on traditional silhouettes. By day, he’s a massage therapist in Shadyside. “Pittsburgh looks at fashion shows as entertainment, not as a business. We have people in the city who are running some fashion shows that haven’t consulted with people in the industry as to what they need.”
He enjoys participating in charity events, such as the yearly Garbage Bag Gala for the Salvation Army of Western Pennsylvania. But when it comes to
fashion shows that are strictly geared toward promoting the city’s designers, he’s seen little correlation between the resources he’s invested and the benefits he’s received.
“I have had zero sales from any fashion shows I’ve had work in,” says Mr. Mumpower, who’s been featured in Pittsburgh Fashion Week and Fashion Week Downtown shows. “I had spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars and hours.
“There are names in fashion in the city who aren’t showing in Pittsburgh fashion shows, and they’re successful in fashion, so there’s a real disconnect in what’s happening.”
Some of his laments are echoed by Paula Minydzak, a designer with nearly 30 years of experience, including in bridal, menswear, denim and tailoring. She’s also taught pattern making and technical design at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Her latest venture is Kick Attire, a line of custom highend menswear.
It doesn’t serve designers or audience members, she says, when her luxe cashmere and wool designs share a runway with collections with a very different aesthetic, which often is the case at shows here.
“There were other designers who bought clothes and hand painted them. There’s no way the audience can understandthe difference in skill set. They’re just looking at a finished product,” Ms. Minydzak says. “When throwing allthese different designers together, they’re not considering who the target market is, and that becomes a total bust forthe designer.”
She, along with Mr. Mumpower and a handful of other Pittsburgh designers, have been meeting and brainstorming ways to improve local fashion shows. The group suggests having a panel that evaluates garment quality to ensure that some of the best representations of Pittsburgh’s talents are being displayed. Plus, designers who are in a position to fill orders for boutiques and retailers should be presented before an audience filled with boutique owners, store buyers, media and other industry professionals from across the city and neighboring states. For these shows, requiring each designer to make a look book or a line sheet that buyers could use to place orders or follow up with designers would help turn the event into a chance for sales.
What to do with these ideas is still a work in progress. They’re open to helping an established city event implement them, or the group may spearhead their own endeavor. In January, Mr. Mumpower is planning a solo fashion show and hopes to try out this format then.
“If we have a strong fashion industry, it just won’t affect designers,” he says. “It will affect photographers, models and stylists, too.”
Pittsburgh vs. other cities
When James Houk was trying to get his lines off the ground in other cities, his business partners gave him some advice: Don’t tell anyone you’re from Pittsburgh.
“It didn’t carry enough cachet,” the Brookline native says. “You couldn’t possibly know what was going on if you weren’t in New York of Los Angeles.”
He knew differently, though.
“I’m not going to pretend to be something I’m not,” he says. “I don’t think they realize the opportunities we do have here,” mentioning American Eagle and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
He’s done lines for both of them and had other pieces carried in Barneys New York and Saks Fifth Avenue. Next year, he’s headed to Italy to design a special edition of his Big Chief denim with Diesel. He’s also a veteran of fashion weeks in Los Angeles and New York City.
When he wanted to try his hand at couture-style gowns, though, he decided to unveil some of them in his hometown. He participated in one year of Style Week Pittsburgh and two years of Fashion Week Downtown — but neither looked like anything he’d seen before.
“There are no buyers and no trade professionals, so what is this? It’s not actually like a fashion show,” he says. It was confusing, frustrating and, in some cases, embarrassing.
“It can’t be an embarrassment anymore.”
In 2018, he’ll serve as creative director for Fashion Week Downtown, helping to polish its production and potentially turn it into an opportunity to bring designers and other fashion professionals together.
“I would invite as many buyers, trade professionals, people in advertising — they need to be people who are going to move the whole thing forward. I want a partnering website where people in the audience can go on and buy things they saw,” he says. “This has to be lifted up.”
Pittsburgh Downtown Community Development Corp. executive director John Valentine thinks Mr. Houk might just be the person who could do that.
“I think James has an unbelievable amount of talent. He’s a really good designer, but I think he’s very unselfish. I think he really cares about fashion.”
For 2018, Style Week Pittsburgh plans to focus on quality, increased awareness and adding collaborators, along with adjusting the length of the event to a threeday weekend dubbed Style Weekend. In the past, it’s varied from four to six days.
“I’ve seen in other places and other cities that there have been events geared around a weekend,” its founder Ms. Taylor says, mentioning Jamaica and Dubai as global examples. “I thought it would make sense to do something a little more condensed.”
On the bright side
For a city that’s still trying to find its fashion footing, sales aren’t the only way to measure success. Some designers have found these sorts of events worthwhile for other reasons.
“I think every event I have been in has helped me,” says Leesa Kassler, a recent graduate of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh’s fashion design program. This fall, she opened 2nd Avenue Boutique in Elizabeth Borough where she sells her designs, along with pieces from other Pittsburgh-based designers. “People have seen me in newspapers and in magazines, and it’s self growth, too. I put in the effort to be there and to be exposed.”
Others have found shows that provide designers with resources, such as supplies or a stipend, to craft something extra special to be rewarding, too.
Memphis George — a designer in Washington, Pa., with an extensive background in styling and set decor in the film and television industry in Los Angeles — is known for sculptural fineart jewelry, dubbed as “art to wear.” Recently, she’s branched out into couturestyle fashions.
Last spring, she was one of the designers that the Carnegie Museum of Art awarded with funds and access to equipment to make a look inspired by the otherworldly aesthetic of Dutch haute couture designer Iris van Herpen, whose designs were on display at the museum earlier this year.
“That was an amazing opportunity. It gave everybody they chose the opportunity to not just do pedestrian things,” she says. “I’d love to see an incubator project where a hundred designers work for a couple of years to come up with something. It’s not a leap.”
If events or institutions, such as an art museum, can come up with a way to not only expose audiences to unorthodox fashions but also provide them with a marketplace where they can purchase more wearable versions of those pieces, that would be another win.
“I think there’s a huge consumer market for ... small designers in Pittsburgh, but I don’t really see where there’s a format for that,” Ms. George says, suggesting that perhaps the fashion industry here could learn something from how craft-centric events such as Handmade Arcade and I Made It! Market got started.
However Pittsburgh’s fashion community decides to move forward, up-andcoming groups such as Style 412 are positioning themselves to be a nucleus to bring events and organizations together. Founded by Elysia Newman, the initiative began as a monthly discussion among fashion influencers to survey the state of the industry. That information was turned into a report that was released this summer.
Since then, a board has been formed that will help bring some of the areas for growth outlined in the report to fruition.
“Our ultimate goal by the end of 2018 is to be a resource for fashion industry professionals,” says Aire Plichta Reese, who’s part of Style 412’s community and engagement committee.
For instance, if designers are looking for a photographer and a makeup artist but don’t know who’s available locally that would fit their style or budget, Style 412 could help outline some options. Programming also is being developed that would help designers or event producers sharpen their skills or connect with like-minded professionals.
Forming strategic partnerships with established events is another goal. In February, the group’s teaming with Carnegie Mellon University’s student-produced Lunar Gala fashion show to pair students with professional mentors.
“We want to be inclusive and give everyone the opportunity to have their voice heard or have their vision executed correctly,” Ms. Plichta Reese says.
Sara Bauknecht: sbauknecht@post-gazette. or on Twitter and Instagram @SaraB_PG.