Clyde Moore: Runway the cool way

What do corn shucks, candy and pet supplies have in common with electrical wiring, road reflectors and landscape burlap? Perplexed designers, both on television and now Winter Park’s own Park Avenue, have been provided them and told: Here, make something.

From the outset I’m going to admit a bit of disappointment. When I was to meet the “emerging designers” to be featured in this year’s Harriett’s Park Avenue Fashion Show on Central Park’s West Meadow this weekend, I’d visualized frazzled arty types chain smoking and chugging coffee, red eyes glazed over, wondering if they’d ever finish their look in time. Not here. These ladies were calm, cool and collected, with more of an “Is that all ya got?” feel.

I arrived at trendy and chic Tuni last Tuesday to find well-coiffed and accessorized models stair-stepped upon platforms outside, turning subtly toward the next entering guest. Inside the music pumped and a platter held by a smiling server was soon before me, a drink in my hand. I could be good at this.

I started taking photos and had captured my first emerging designer and her statuesque model close by before I even knew it. Mia Chere, of Palm Beach, could be a model herself. But here, she’s the designer, her model in a black leather dress with lace back. Designing for three years and specializing in resort wear, Mia was the first to help me understand these ladies would not be easily intimidated by the box of signs, building and landscaping supplies, and reflective material provided to them to produce a look 125 years into the future in honor of Winter Park’s 125th year anniversary.

“I loved it,” she said. “It was so fun. It makes you go outside the box and think about it. First thing I threw them all out on the table and just looked at them, went through them. It was fun.” The included light bulbs, she said, were the most challenging.

I asked what would intimidate her and she responded, “I thought plastic was going to be bad, but it wasn’t too bad. I was fighting with it a little bit, but I think that was the worst thing they could have thrown at me because when you sew it, it just tears.” We talk of the unconventional challenge, which is a staple of each “Project Runway” season, and she refers to a bird seed dress made from pet store supplies, a dress with a classic shape and truly unexpected details, as she describes much of her own work.

I next meet new designer Heather Cleary of Miami. Heather reminds me of an actress, here modeling her own classic black cocktail dress with cardinal-red eyelet jacket. Previously in visual merchandising, Heather has only been designing for five months. Especially when I see her models’ looks inside, I’m shocked.

I ask if she’s a “Project Runway” fan and she replies simply: “Huge.” Did she like this challenge? “I loved it. Living so far away, they mail me the materials and at first when they came in I didn’t know what I was going to do with them, but after really looking at it, I wanted to embrace the fact that it’s the 125th anniversary of Winter Park. So, I wanted to incorporate that into my look, but also give it a very futuristic vibe as well, because it was all electrical equipment.”

Heather is a diehard “Project Runway” fan, like myself. She talks of loving work from Rami Kashou, a contestant several seasons past, and Dmitry Sholokhov, in this season’s finals. She’s ready for most any material challenge, but was happy there were no oranges or other food items in that box. “I’ll deal with whatever’s given to me,” she says. “I like working under pressure.”

Next I meet a very vivacious Melissa Vivo. Melissa oozes energy and seems to be always smiling. She’s not tall, but aside her very tall swimsuit model Melissa, for me, she is the one who commands attention. I ask how she felt about the challenge, and she responds, “Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. I had so much fun. But it was a process! I first took out all these crazy materials, like a light bulb, construction-type stuff, took a couple of days to figure out what I was going to do with the materials, how I can change them.”

She says she likes to play with contrasts, things that might not automatically go together. “I love Project Runway,” she offered. “That’s why I had so much fun with the challenge.” As I’d heard before, the light bulb was most daunting, but, she said, “I thought I’m going to use this light bulb somehow. So I broke it and cleaned it up and then colored it with a highlighter to make it neon yellow and I made it as jewels on a necklace. The glass pieces are like jewels.”

Marian Stack was my last designer conversation that evening, and I delighted in every word spoken with her Irish accent. She says her three children now tease her about it. She went to school in Ireland, but has been in the Orlando area since 1993. She took time off to focus on raising her children, but earlier this year saw an announcement of the Winter Park Fashion Week emerging designer competition.

She explained, “I was actually supposed to be going to Europe when I heard about the designer challenge and I said, you know what, maybe this is an opportunity to step back in and see if I’ve got it. And I was so happy to be a semi-finalist, I was like really delighted to be one of the five chosen and I thought, I still have it!” Her model comes outside and she tells me about the white dress with hand-painted blue orchid, a long midnight blue linen jacket with bright red interior. Her children may have been disappointed about the canceled trip, but I’d say it was a good move.

I was never able to get or talk with the fifth designer, Fabiola Moreno. But in talking with Tuni co-owner and Fashion Week Chair Paige Blackwelder, and Kristina Mackinder who heads the emerging designer competition, it seems they’re both presently as proud as two Winter Park peacocks of the visual surprises to be revealed this weekend. Kristina admits, “I was impressed that one of them was able to create a brand new silhouette look that I wanted to wear out of landscape burlap.”

No chain smoking or coffee chugging necessary.

Local Luv'n Local

Winter Park glass artist Lee Taylor creates works that dazzle in the light! Her creations draw from texture and color from long summer days riding the waves, from the feeling of walking in the sand, and from watching the sun set on the St. Johns River from a sailboat. You can now view and purchase her works at Blue Door Denim Shoppe on Park Avenue. See and read more about her at LeeTaylorDesign.com

Clyde Moore operates local sites ILUVWinterPark.com, ILUVParkAve.com and LUVMyRate.com, and aims to help local businesses promote themselves for free and help save them money, having some fun along the way. Email him at [email protected] or write to ILuv Winter Park on Facebook or Twitter.