vitaminwater to take "Flourish" fashion show national

The high-ups at vitaminwater loved the concept I designed and executed for the vitaminwaterZERO "Flourish" fashion show in August so much that they're planning to incorporate it into additional markets throughout the U.S. next year, as well as do more fashion-oriented events in the future!

[Poster art by Caroline Royce]

Click HERE for photos from the show;

Click HERE for designer sketches from the show.

Read reviews of the show by Juleana Enright for l'etoile magazine and Mary O'Regan of METRO Magazine.

Recap of vitaminwaterZERO Flourish fashion show

[Photo courtesy Ray Shan]

Last month, I produced a fashion show for the first time in my career for vitaminwater's new ZERO brand. I did everything from coming up with the concept of the show (seven local designers create an avant-garde look based on one of the seven new flavors), to enlisting a graphic designer to create flyer art for the show (Caroline Royce), to finding the perfect location (the rooftop gardens of Crowne Plaza), to working with a DJ to come up with the perfect soundtrack to the evening (Jonathan Ackerman). Ray Shan captured the action on behalf of designer Laura Fulk.

Designer: Danielle Everine
Flavor: Green tea ("Rescue")

Designer: Ivan Idland
Flavor: Lemonade ("Squeezed")

Designer: Max Lorhbach
Flavor: Orange ("Rise")

Designer: Calpurnia Peach
Flavor: Peach mango ("Recoup")

Designer: Emma Berg
Flavor: Grape raspberry ("Mega-C")

Designer: Kerry Riley of Needle & Black
Flavor: Mixed berry ("Go-Go")

Designer: Laura Fulk
Flavor: Acai-blueberry-pomegranate ("XXX")

[Photo by Sohail Justin Akhavein]

As the evening's host and emcee, I wore a top and shorts by Tender Cuts by Emily Bryngelson (and vintage Hermes sandals). I chat with Laura Fulk and Calpurnia Peach's Luci Kandler about their designs:



View the full photo set here. Click here for designer sketches of their designs; here for a review from l'etoile's Juleana Enright and here for Mary O'Regan's review for METRO Magazine; and here for more on the show on Le Petit.

All photos courtesy Ray Shan with Laura Fulk unless otherwise noted.

Kerry Riley debuts Needle & Black designs

Now that Kerry Riley has re-launched her brand as Needle & Black, she's making it known with a shoot featuring her newest designs. From the looks of it, Riley's not making any grand departure from her work under the name Red Shoe Clothing Co., but with the added variety and color, it's fun to see Riley stepping outside of her comfort zone just a bit.

You'll be able to see these designs (including the above garment I commissioned from her to make for the recent vitaminwaterZERO "Flourish" fashion show), new screen-printed Needle & Black t-shirts, and jewelry by Lauren Neal's Carrier Pigeon at next Thursday's Studio Launch Party for the studio they share at Thorp Building in Northeast.

Loving the Parisian-style print of this top - and the easy-chic fit of it.

This is the dress (minus the train) Riley created for Laura Bennett of Red Pens for Voltage 2010 this past April. It's hard to see in this picture, but the bleaching is quite lovely. Riley says she plans to incorporate more of the bleached-out look in her t-shirts and future designs.

A lovely, simple little dress that is ultra-wearable. It's a silhouette Riley first debuted in January at Cliche's Avoid the Grey show, but looks so much different with this print.

This spy coat was part of Riley's "The Death of Red Shoe" show in May. The epaulet chain design is by Carrier Pigeon.

Photographer: Brian Bradshaw
Model: Kristina Lezepekova / Ignite Models.

Making-of: The flyer art for vitaminwaterZERO Flourish

Last month, commissioned rising graphic designer Caroline Royce to create flyer art for a fashion show I was producing for vitaminwater/Glaceau for the product launch of its ZERO line. She did an interesting blog on her creative process for the lovely flyer art. Here's what she had to say:

[Preliminary sketches]

I got an email from local freelance fashion writer/stylist Jahna Peloquin about a fashion show presented by Vitaminwater ZERO. They wanted a poster done, and her description was something "whimsical, elegant, like an abstract sketch of a woman from the 40's" or something. So, I that's what I literally did.

I wasn't going to be able to sketch out what I wanted to by hand. I looked up some images from google and found one. I then used my wacom tablet in photoshop to trace a rough yet elegant sketch of her. I was going for something much like Garance Doré does with her fashion sketches. Photoshop wasn't quite good enough to achieve this look. Plus, it would turn out lo-res and gross. On a whim, I decided to see what would happen if I put the .psd file into Illustrator and did a live trace. The results were surprisingly perfect. It made the lines clean, dramatic, stylish, and best yet: hand-drawn.

[The final product]

The swooping colors were based off of some vitaminwater flavors. It modernized it a bit, and also looks like my work. My boyfriend also pointed out that it looked like a runway. I was like, "oh yeah! duh!"

vitaminwater ZERO presents FLOURISH: Designer Preview

Tonight I'm very excited to present the first show I've had the pleasure of producing, vitaminwaterZERO presents FLOURISH. I was approached by vitaminwater to help produce a fashion show around their new "ZERO" no-calorie beverage line, and I thought the best - and most exciting! - way to do this was to ask 7 of my favorite local designers to create a high-fashion look based on one of each of the 7 flavors.

[Flyer design by Caroline Royce]

To preview tonight's show, I wanted to share with you the original sketches by the designers.

"Rise" (orange): Max Lohrbach

"Recoup" (peach mango): Calpurnia Peach

"Mega-C" (grape-raspberry): Emma Berg

"Go-Go" (mixed berry): Kerry Riley (Needle & Black)

"Squeezed" (lemonade): Ivan Idland

"XXX" (acai-blueberry-pomegranate): Laura Fulk

"Rescue" (green tea): Danielle Everine

Show details:
Wednesday, August 11
Doors 6:30 / Show 7:30
Crowne Plaza Hotel 8th floor rooftop Skygarden
618 2nd Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN
FREE / All Ages
Click here for the facebook invite

Local fashion link roundup: Mid-week edition

The mid-week edition of the local fashion link roundup has more Glamorama links, photos and a review from last night's vitaminwaterZERO Flourish fashion show (which I produced and styled), and more:

[Photo: Kiah Brasch]

A photo of former Project Runway contestants Chris March and Minnesota native Christopher Straub at last Friday's Glamorama surfaced on Blogging Project Runway.

Ellen Dahl Lawson captures photog Amy Gee at a recent event at June Resale for The Minneapoline. She shoots the stylist guests at Glamorama for Vita.mn.

Sara Glassman showcases the stylish guests at Glamorama for Star Tribune, including Christopher Straub.

Pioneer Press' Allison Kaplan offers her review of Glamorama.

Some photos from last night's vitaminwaterZERO flourish fashion show are up, thanks to Christian Erickson and designer Danielle Everine.

Mpls.St.Paul Magazine has video of the show, the fashion, and the after party at Glamorama.

Jane Belfry of City Pages has posted a review of the show.

Elena Mercurio finally posts her S/S 2010 Lookbook (i.e., her Voltage 2010 collection that debuted in April). Pieces should be at Cliché this week.

Designer Vivian Aronson of YQY by Vivian shows of her latest collection at last weekend's Fabulosity event at the W Hotel.

Collective Revival has posted a designer call for a fashion show to be held October 2 at Shiloh Temple.

Ignite Models welcomes new model Laura with a stunning photo shoot she shot recently in Greece.

Star Tribune gossip C.J. has exclusive details and video on Levi Johnston's appearance in Minnesota-bred pop singer Brittani Senser's video shoot in L.A., purportedly in which she's wearing a dress by local line YQY by Vivian.

Meghan McAndrew of the High Plains Thrifter blog (also a former beauty buyer) announced she'll be a new contributor to Elizabeth Dehn's Minnesota-based Beauty Bets blog, dishing on budget-friendly beauty buys every Wednesday.