Designer Spotlight: Margaret Gerhart & Vanessa Koch

Both design undergraduate students, Margaret Gerhart (Industrial design) and Vanessa Koch (Communication design) are in their third year at Carnegie Mellon University in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. They enjoy stretching the boundaries of the design field in many different directions.  In February of 2007, they debuted their first collaborative effort in Carnegie Mellon's annual student fashion show, the Lunar Gala. The collection, titled Let's Get Trashed!, featured ten outfits made from completely recycled materials such as cardboard, newspaper, and plastic bags. This concept explored the relationship between human consumption and waste, giving recycled trash a new home on the human body. As a design team, they continually push creative possibilities and always aim to surprise and entertain their audience.

Vanessa is currently spending a semester studying abroad in Florence, Italy. As a result, the team's collaboration for this year's Carousel Couture show has occurred via the Internet. This design experience has beenequally challenging and rewarding for the team.

This is the first year that Margaret and Vanessa will design for the Madcap Masquerade.

Designer Spotlight: Karen Page

Karen has been designing and making "stuff" all her life - from designing clothes and houses for her Troll dolls, to designing jewelry and felted objects that are in The Shop at the Mattress Factory.  Her interests have included "all things textile" from knitting and crochet to weaving and feltmaking. Her expertise is feltmaking has allowed her the opportunity to travel to Denmark and Turkey. For several summers Karen worked with various women's co-ops in Kyrgyzstan teaching feltmaking and design.

This past summer Karen collaborted in the Container Exhibition at the Three Rivers Arts Festival with Joanna Commandaros and Anna Divinksy (see this work at twisttiemultiply.blogspot.com). Always seeking the new, the wonderful and the unique, Karen will combine free-form crochet pieces with handmade felt to create a whimsical piece for this event.  She teaches at CAPA High School where she continues to be challenged and invigorated by her wonderfully creative students. Several of the "young designers" in Madcap this year have been in her textile studies classes! (Tori Mistick, Emma Shutko & Marla Parker were all Karen's students!)

This year marks Karen Page's second time to participate in the Madcap Masquerade Ball.

Spotlight: Tori Mistick

Tori Mistick is a designer as well at the producer of this year's Carousel Couture during the Madcap Masquerade. She has been a designer and co-producer of the show since its inception and she is thrilled to take the reins this year.

She graduated from CAPA where she created the school's first large-scale fashion show - raising sponsorships, approaching local and student designers and creating a collection herself. That show, called Spiked Fashion, ignited Tori's interest in the fashion industry, in particular in producing fashion shows.

Since then, she has worked on a Pittsburgh-based lifestyles magazine, attended London College of Fashion, worked on many local fashion shows, and this December she will graduate from Duquesne University with a degree in Integrated Marketing Communication and Studio Art.

Tori designs for fashion shows, private clients, friends and family. Her design aesthetic is usually simple but with embellishment and luxury finishes that set her pieces apart from the crowd. She believes the worst crime of fashion is to blend in, and vies to be unique in everything she does.

This is the fourth year that Tori Mistick will design for and produce the fashion show for the Madcap Masquerade.

Designer Spotlight: Marla Parker

Marla Parker was born and raised in Pittsburgh's Friendship neighborhood. A CAPA graduate, she now attends the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. As a fibers major she creates both fine art and fashion-based work.

Marla began sewing seriously in high school when she created looks for CAPA's various fashion shows and recently participated in the Mattress Factory's annual Garden Party fashion show (along with fellow Carousel Couture designers Zoe Collins and Jennie Canning!). 

Intricate detail, unique materials, and a feisty charm characterize her designs. Inspiration comes from a variety of sources, including Japanese textile designs, ornithology, and quilt-making techniques. Marla has an upcoming solo exhibition at a MICA campus gallery in January and plans to design a full line for the College's annual fashion show in the spring.

This will be the first year Marla's work appears on the Madcap Masquerade runway.

Designer Spotlight: Zoe Collins

Best known for her innovative styles, Zoe Collins is a self-taught artist who dresses individuals with discerning taste in uniquely spirited custom designs.

Originally part of the vibrant '90s New York art scene, Collins moved to Pittsburgh in 1995 to blaze a trail uniting fashion and fine art in our town. Featured in numerous local and national publications in the U.S. and Ireland, she is a dedicated member of the Pittsburgh fashion community who strives to "live the dream." Check out the photo below, of her favorite local model, Blythe Bort, dressed in a Zoe Collins original for the Mattress Factory's Marie Antoinette-themed Urban Garden Party this past June. (Look for Blythe wearing Zoe's gown at Madcap as well!)

Zoe delivers quality service to her clients by expertly engineering - a la couture - for all body types. She reinforces her service through 22 years of commitment, integrity, and her characteristically enduring, "Yes, we can do that... with flair!" approach to sewing and design.

Currently creating in Sharpsburg, PA, she owns and operates a full-service tailoring salon named Threadneedle Street. There, she offers fine tailoring for men and women, a custom

 design service, and a showroom featuring her unique specialty and ready-to-wear garments.

Zoe Collins can be reached at 412-799-0616 to schedule an appointment for your tailoring or design needs.

This will be the fourth year that Zoe works on the Madcap Masquerade Couture show.

Photo Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Designer Spotlight: Carl Williams Jr.

Carl Williams is a Cleveland native, born and raised, and a recent graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, majoring in Fashion and Retail Management. His speciality is styling and merchandising. There is no glamorous story of triumph or tale of hardship behind his passion to design. He considers himself a self-taught designer, with a passion for men's and women's sportswear. Hi inspiration comes from music and natural anomalies, and his best work comes from draping directly to the dress form. His design philosophy stem from the appreciation of structure and tailoring, organic shapes, and an elegant asymmetry that emphasizes the raw beauty of imperfection.

Carl is a working 20 year old, recently hired to organize the Children's Very Own Santa Land that the downtown Macy's. He says that he is a sucker for the classics, including old school rhythm and blues, Dior's "new Look", and Nike sneakers - although he never leaves home without a sketchbook and Ipod. While the future is so uncertain and spontaneous, he hopes to continue his education, and someday develop an eponymous clothing and accessories label.

This is Carl's second go at the Madcap Masquerade.

Designer Spotlight: Brittney Thieroff

Brittney Thieroff is a Pittsburgh native who recently moved back to her hometown to pursue her career in fashion. She began her design studies in Milan, Italy and continued her education at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She completed her final year in Florence, Italy, where she graduated with a B.A. in Fashion Design. Her first collection, entitled 'Babylove', debuted on the runway at Localmotion last fall. Babylove blurs the line between a girly-girl and a femme fatale. 'I design for women who aren't afraid to take risks...someone who has a sense of self and individuality. Someone who doesn't take themselves too seriously.' Brittney is currently working on her next collection while simultaneously producing a maternity line that will be available in Spring '09 (www.gracemama.com). You can view her work, as well as place custom design requests on her MySpace page or reach her by email.

This will be Brittney Thieroff's first year participating in the Madcap Masquerade.

Designer Spotlight: Jennie Canning

Jennie Canning, a Northside based designer, began sewing and creating one of a kind clothing for friends, and friends of friends as a way to earn money when her son was an infant. In 2001, she was encouraged by the then owners of Luxx (a boutique on the Southside) Jessica and Erin, to take her unique, urban-inspired designs to the masses.

So, she started Diondega in 2002- Diondega is the original Seneca name for the Pittsburgh area. Her one of a kind hand-dyed creations were well accepted and sold throughout the US and in Japan, as well as on her website.

Today, Jennie still desgins for Diondega, continues making custom clothing for her favorite clients, and is an art teacher in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

This is the first year that Jennie Canning will be designing for the Madcap Masquerade.

Designer Spotlight: Tereneh Mosley

Tereneh Mosley is the creator of her own line called Idia'Dega. She was lucky enough to have a childhood filled with dance, beauty, art, literature, music and diversity.  This gave her the passion to seek beauty in all its forms for her clothing line. She came up with the name of the line by looking into definitions of meaningful words in indigenous languages/ Idia means "mother of the queen" and Dega is short for the original Shoshone name for Pittsburgh, Diondega.

Tereneh recently moved to Los Angeles to further pursue her clothing line, but brings a distinctive creation to this year's Madcap Masquerade with a custom carousel inspired mask. Her line uses exclusively organic and sustainable materials and we are excited to see how this is brought to the runway this year!

This is the first year that Tereneh Mosley will be participating in the Madcap Masquerade.

Source: www.idiadega.com

Designer Spotlight: Nicole Scarpone

Nicole Scarpone is a Pittsburgh born and raised young fashion designer.  She fueled her passion for the arts while studying at Point Park University and was given the opportunity to refine her clothing designs skills.  Locally, Nicole has designed notable costumes for Pittsurgh's historical Gateway Clipper Fleet where she also performed as a lead vocalist.

Her most recent endeavor is the launch of her own fashion line, Scarpone Italian Made - where fashion meets art. The line has been hugely successful so far and has fueled demand for Nicole's limited and customized creations.

On a national level, Nicole's designs landed her as a semi-finalist in the popular Project Runways fashion design show on Bravo.

This will be Nicole's fourth year designing for Madcap, in 2006 she was also recognized as a fan favorite by Metropolitan Magazine.

Designer Spotlight: Nami Ogawa

Nami Ogawa grew up in Tokyo where her mother, who was an excellent seamstress, inspired her to start sewing when she was 11 years old. Nami designed and created her own clothes for many years but it never occured to her to become a fashion designer. Her first career was a ballerina, where she quickly volunteered to help with costume design. She soon realised that fashion was her true calling and began working in the fashion industry as a buyer and a designer.

She launched her line Zeto in 2001 as a clothing line with a keen focus on innovation and attention to detail. The line uses only the highest quality of fabrics and custom dyes to showcase a Japanese and an American influence in the sophisticated and contemporary designs. Zeto is sold in Nami's store Apartment in the Southside, on her website and in boutiques from New York to Alabama to Japan.

This is the fourth year that Nami will be designing for Madcap, in 2006 her design for the event was recognized as a fan favorite by Metropolitan Magazine.

Source: www.zeto-clothing.com, WQED

Designer Spotlight: Kiya Tomlin

Kiya is the first designer we will be spotlighting here with a brief bio so you can get to know her before the show on October 25th.

A native of Morristown, New Jersey, Kiya Tomlin began sewing when she was 10. She asked her mother for a sewing machine and rapidly progressed from a pillow to a duck to women's apparel. After recently moving to Pittsburgh with her family, she still manages to find time to focus on fashion despite a busy schedule. The wife and mother of three somehow fits in about six hours of designing in an average weekday. She sews from 6 to 8 a.m., resumes from 1 to 3 p.m. while their two sons are in school and their toddler daughter is napping, and then picks up again from 9 to 11 p.m. when the kids are in bed in their Shadyside home.
Her favorite styles to design are women's formal wear and she caters to many private clients as well as making gowns for herself.  One of her clients, singer Brynn Williams, wore one of Kiya's gowns in the 2005 Broadway production of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

This is the first year that Kiya will be designing for the Madcap Masquerade.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette