(Video: Joe Loper of Guerilla Photography)

Interview with Kelly Dempsey of Rack Addik

Project Runway alum Kelly Dempsey recently debuted her FW17 collection at AMCONYC during New York Fashion week. The new collection was the latest from Rack Addik, her fashion-forward streetwear line (with some items already available for purchase online).

Rack Addik’s Fall/Winter 2017 collection was constructed with intent to exist in a “world without labels.” Dempsey says, “I believe that real beauty is present once you are able to look at someone and view them without confinement.”

FWO’s Melanie Sutrathada caught up with Dempsey backstage to ask her about the new collection.

Q: How would you describe the collection in 3 words?

Glitter and grunge.

Q: What inspired this amazing glitter and grunge collection?

What I love about the grunge era is that nobody gives a crap about anything. You know, I don’t believe in labels. I feel like when you put labels on things, it sort of constricts your creativity, and I really want to have a collection where — if I want to wear bright pink with black sparkle, sure — if I want to wear bell bottoms why not? Like who is going to tell me no. I wear what I want.

So I sort of want to put that message out. You can do whatever the hell you want.

When you put labels on things, it sort of constricts your creativity.

Q: I have to say that that is so Kelly on so many levels. I think if you’ve seen her on TV, she’s got such a vivacious personality, and it really shows through in her clothes. I feel like everyone who wears your clothes is just having a ball of a time.

Always fun.

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t a designer?

I consider myself more of an artist than a designer. I love to make things and see it on the runway, it’s amazing.

Q: This is your second collection show with AMCONYC. Can you tell me a little bit about the process of making it all happen?

It was a little bit last-minute this season, which is always … what am I saying, it’s always like that. So running around crazy, but I feel like I do my best work last minute, pulling everything together, so I’m super excited to see how everything comes out.

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Learn More

www.rackaddik.com
www.amconyc.com

With love,

FWO

(Main image via style.nine.com.au)

Video by Geoffrey Jones

Interview with Ty Hunter

Qeen Bey’s “forever stylist” Ty Hunter is a personality in his own right: he’s creator of the Ty-Lite, a selfie-lighting phone case for dark situations, styled Destiny’s Child, and he has his own clothing collection, With Passion.

Writer Eila Mell caught up with him backstage at Michael Costello.

Q: I’m here at Michael Costello show with one of my favorite people, Ty Hunter. How are you?

I love you. You’re one of my favorite people.

Q: Oh, you’re the best. I know that you are very special to Michael. How did you first meet?

I met Michael doing the Grammys a couple of years ago. I had all the racks and racks of dresses but — The Beyhive has a lot to do with this: Beyoncé’s fans always tagged me with Michael’s looks and stuff.

The Beyhive has a lot to do with this.

So I ended up going to Grammy pre-party that night, and I ran into Michael and I was like “You know what? I want to come to your showroom tomorrow because I love your work.”

And I went to the showroom and he showed me all this stuff, and I saw a lot of beautiful things, but not “that one thing.”

Q: The dress that was special.

 
Thank you. And he said, “Well, let me go upstairs,” and that dress was laying there, with no zipper and I said, “That’s it.” And it made history; it’s in the Grammy Museum. And Michael is just an amazing person.

It made history; it’s in the Grammy Museum.

We built a relationship; I use him all the time, he is family, all the tours, everything. His turnaround is great, the quality is great, and he is just talented.

Q: What a great story that you went to him.

 
Yeah, and he has a tattoo of the day that Beyoncé wore his dress because it was very life-changing for him.

Q: Is that with the zipper?

 
No, he put the actual date on his arm.

Q: Wow.

 
Yeah.

Q: That’s awesome. We all know that Ty dresses Beyoncé, but who else are some of your clients?

You know, I dress everybody. But right now I’m just focusing on Ty Hunter and I’m building my brand. I have this amazing women athleisure line that I just did with Six:02, I collaborated with Reflex and it’s my designs, it’ll be in all the Foot Lockers on the 23rd, exclusive in New York for 7 days, and then everywhere else.

Right now I’m focusing on Ty Hunter and I’m building my brand.

Q: And online, too?

 
Yes. I’m really excited, and I’m going to get you a little something.

Q: Oh, I like that. Excellent. That’s the best part of my job. It was so great to see you.

You too, you look fabulous and I love you, always.

Q: Thank you. Oh, love you.

 
Anything for you.

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Learn More

Ty Hunter by Reflex at Six:02
@tytryone on IG

With love,

FWO

Video by Geoffrey Jones

Interview with Miss J.

Your already know J. Alexander from America’s Next Top Model.

Eila Mell caught up with Miss J. backstage at Michael Costello during New York Fashion Week for a little one-on-one.

Q: How are you?

 
I’m fine, a little bit cold but fine but I’m real snuggled up in my little GAS jeans.

Q: Looking great. So J., I don’t know if people know you really have taught so many of the most famous models how to walk.

Yeah, it all started back in the … (ahem)

Q: Right, yeah, we don’t want to say years.

It’s [not important] when it started … I just ended up with this really great TV career with America’s Next Top Model.

Q: Yes, everybody knows J. from that.

 
And I was strict, but — I always thought — a bit polite and nice to the girls. I was firm, very, very firm. And fashion has been a part of my life since birth.

Fashion has been a part of my life since birth.

I mean I think just creating things to be a part of a fashion movement over the years has been a great opportunity. It’s opened up my eyes a lot more than I thought, than I could imagine.

Even though I went to school to be an accountant when I’d been in Bronx.

Q: What?

 
Yeah, I went to school to be an accountant when I’d been in Bronx. I just took science to fashion.

I went to school to be an accountant. I just took science to fashion.

Q: What was the first show you ever went to?

 
The first show I went to was Geoffrey Beene.

Q: Did you sneak in or did you have an invite?

I snuck in. You know, it’s really funny, I snuck in to shows for about the first 20+ years and I’ve been living in Paris.

Q: One last question, who do you think has the best walk right now?

Anyone who can maneuver this ice and slush today has the best walk.

Q: Oh, then that could be me.

 
This is my first Michael Costello show actually.

Q: Oh, you’re going to love it. I saw the collection, it’s great.

I met his uncle once in a cafe once in L.A. Strange.

Q: That is funny.

 
He’s had great success, I’m really happy for him but it’s great to be supportive of people who went through emotion and have been doing pretty, pretty well. I’m happy for him.

Q: And you know, he is self-taught.

 
I love him even more, because so am I. Wow.

Q: Great talking to you. Thank you.

 
Michael, I didn’t know that. Wow. Bravo. Same thing here. Number seven of ten children, I’d recreate clothes when I would get the hand-me-downs.

I’d recreate clothes when I would get the hand-me-downs.

Q: And you would rework them for yourself.

 
Back to this jacket here, the sleeves are too short and I hated them short, so I just added this on.

Thanks Andrew Morrison for letting me go to his showroom in a work room and grabbing a half yard of ribon and sewing it up and then attaching it to the lining, and here it is.

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Learn More

@Miss_JAlexander

With love,

FWO

On a Roll

Not everyone decides to become a fashion designer in their 40s. And not many designers of any age experience the kind of tremendous success enjoyed by Pamella DeVos, of Pamella Roland, who boasts an extended celebrity clientele (as if that mattered).

But as Pamella tells us in this interview, her greatest joy is in making anyone feel special.

Writer Kyleigh McCollam of C’est Le Style caught up with Pamella after the show to ask her a few questions about the collection.

Walking Art

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Q: What was the inspiration behind this season’s collection?

Our customer loves to wear jewel tones in the fall. I love all the berries and garnets and aubergine. So I told my design team, this is what we’re doing this year. Because I love these colors.

Q: What’s your creative process when designing each collection, from the fabrics to the silhouettes?

It depends what you start with. This time, I started with a painting. [The collection was inspired in part by Mark Rothko.] Then you start looking through fabrics. I love fabrics. Obviously we’re doing beaded dresses, so we go through a lot of samples looking at beading. Let me tell you; that can take awhile. It’s fun, but they can start looking alike after awhile.

This time, I started with a painting.

Q: What is your favorite piece from this collection and why?

You know what, my favorite is the one that opened the finale; the strapless, the one with the ribbons in all the different colors. What was so great about that is it has all of our inspiration colors. And there was a lot of hand work in that dress.

Q: Describe the ideal “Pamella Roland woman” — who is she, and what does she represent?

I get asked this often, and they’re really all ages.

I’ve dressed the daughters, and their mothers, and grandmothers. Obviously we’re known for our gowns and cocktail dresses. So a lot of the time, it’s a really special event they’re going to.

I’ve dressed daughters, mothers, and grandmothers.

So more than anything, I just want them to feel good in it, and feel good about themselves in our dresses.

They’re kind of a piece of art. A walking piece of art.

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Learn More

www.pamellaroland.com

With love,

FWO

Interview with Desigual Brand Communications Director Daniel Perez

Intro by Pablo Starr

If there’s any time when it feels like the forces of freedom and containment are marshalling at opposite ends of a battlefield (or just political spectrum … or maybe both) that time is now.

But wait: this has happened before. And it’s part of the larger dialectic: that sometimes painful push-pull between thesis and antithesis that brings about change.

Indeed, rebellion has gotten us to where we are today: an age, simply put, of more rights for more people. With more work to come.

Desigual’s FW2017 collection is here to remind us of that.

Rebellion has gotten us where we are today: more rights for more people.

 
Status Quo Vadis

[portfolio_slideshow id=25576 align=center width=800 click=advance thumbnailsize=40 showcaps=false]

 
Interview by Lisa Panke

“For Fall 2017, the Desigual collection was inspired by the female uprisings of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s – reinterpreted for the 21st century woman of today. A countercultural mix of West Coast love-ins, European New Wave, and East Coast Voguing Balls are punctuated by the signature lightheartedness and playfulness that define the Desigual brand.”

Lisa Panke met backstage with Desigual Brand Communications Director Daniel Perez backstage to find out more.

(Photos: Chris Lavish)

Q: What can we expect today, Daniel?

 
We’re going to see a collection that is very much Desigual, but you’re going to see a very refreshed proposal. Very much what Desigual is known for, which is handmade, color, mixing elements. But very refreshing, very young, and very contemporary.

The collection takes its inspiration from the subcultures of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s … especially subcultures that talked about women and questioned the status quo, gender, and freedom.

Q: That’s sounds so amazing. I can’t wait to see it! What’s it like coming here to New York every year to present this collection?

It’s very, very exciting for us. We’ve been coming here every six months for a few years, and every time it’s just as exciting as the beginning. We always want to make it better. You have to keep surprising people, which is not easy.

You have to keep surprising people, which is not easy.

That’s why we always want to do new things.

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More info.

desigual.com

With love,

FWO