Tampa Bay held its 11th annual fashion week from Wednesday, September 19th to Saturday, September 22nd. The annual celebration featured events like networking, runway shows, style sessions, and panel discussions.
The signature designer and brand runway show was held in the Grand Court area of the International Plaza and Bay Street Mall from 6-9 p.m. Introduced by emcees Laura Hunt and Jorge Alvarado Krupa, the runway show included both local fashion designers and exclusive showings from select brands like Free People, Johnny Was, UNTUCKit, Fabletics, Lilly Pulitzer and more.
“It’s not typical to find local, independent designers showcasing alongside the larger retailer brands, but International Plaza has been progressive in putting the brands in the mall alongside local designers, which is pretty cool,” said Nancy Vaughn, Executive Producer/Senior Event Publicist of Tampa Bay Fashion Week.
To get a better idea of what it is like to be apart of our region’s fashion community, I spoke to four different designers who participated in this year’s show.
Elizabeth Carson Racker
Photo courtesy of Anne Phillips Photography
How did you start designing?
“It is a long, long story. It starts off all the way in high school when I was always styling my friends, and doing fashion shows within school. I was always a heavy sports girl. I played sports in high school and in college. After my first two years in college, I started thinking, ‘What is my next step?’, so I went straight to the Savannah College of Arts and Design where I started to get into the fashion community and once I got overwhelmed with evening wear, it just started from there. Evening wear was the platform of my design aesthetic.”
What is your biggest inspiration as a fashion designer?
“What I find that I am inspired by a lot is African drape. I think within my design aesthetic you can always see some type of unique way that the fabric will hang and drape on a female body. I love draping, so it is always body conscious and it has those signature lines within my garments that I find throughout the whole collection that I always lean on. Overall, heavy prints and African drape are the core base of my aesthetic.”
Photo courtesy of Anne Phillips Photography
What made you bring your creativity to Tampa?
“I am a Tampa native, and knowing where Tampa is going, it is a comfort zone for me. I have been all over and I will go anywhere, but I am trying to really push the Tampa fashion market because there is a lot of talent here, especially for young and upcoming designers. There are designers that have been here for a while, and they love to come to shows, but they are not coming to support the brand. There is money here, there is a theme here, and Tampa’s going to be growing in the next five to ten years. We are just trying to harvest and basically birth the fashion world here in Tampa, so I have not given up.”
What advice would you give to someone aspiring to be a fashion designer?
Do research on where you want to be. I kind of dove into it because when I got into fashion I was traveling with a traveling fashion show and then they bought my senior collection. My name was being called every night, people were asking for me to make stuff as they were seeing it up close, so I kind of got thrown into it. I would always tell people that we are going to need people, so work underneath people, go to New York, and get some experience because there is a lot to learn on the business side of fashion and the development of clothing.
Eko Anderson of Nyhira Bridal Couture
Photo courtesy of Anne Phillips Photography
How did you start designing?
“I actually started sewing in a needling class when I was in high school. This was my first exposure to embroidery, stitching, and hand sewing, so that is kind of what peaked my interest. I have always been interested in different design aspects. I started college studying architecture and then moved into interior design. I also have experience with photography. I have always had a creative side, but I did not start taking it seriously until a couple of years ago when I stumbled into the industry as a bridal planner. Then I opened my first boutique and it all started coming back to me. I officially started the design process three or four years ago when I started thinking about developing my own collection for my stores.”
What do you hope to bring to the community from your designs?
“I would really like to expose folks over here to the vibrant African culture. I think there are so many elements of African culture that are misunderstood, so the idea is to bring it to the mainstream and to help people understand the different cultural elements, why they are important, and what they mean. I also want to bridge the gap, and try to answer some of the questions about the misinformation and the stereotypes. Being Ghanian is a huge part of who I am and I am very proud of where I am from since I was born and raised over there. It is the foundation of who I am. Being able to bring that out in my clothing and being able to educate people about Ghanian is really a blessing to me, and that what I try to introduce through my designs.”
Photo courtesy of Anne Phillips Photography
What advice would you give to someone else trying to become a fashion designer?
“I would say to trust yourself. It is a process that you have to go through, but it is important while you are going through that journey to trust yourself and to trust your instincts. Your perspective is unique, so trust in that. It is not an easy process or an easy journey, but if you stay true to yourself the rewards are phenomenal. I think for any young designer, it is a terrifying idea to put yourself out there, but if you trust yourself the rewards are phenomenal.”
Invisa’U Intimates with Bonita Brantley
Photo courtesy of Anne Phillips Photography
How did you start designing?
“I started designing when I was literally in high school, getting ready to go to college. That was a very long time ago,” Brantley laughs. “I was inspired to be a fashion designer because whenever I was going to the store or going to the mall, I would always find things that would make me think, ‘Oh, this would be cute, but if you took the sleeves off. Or if you change this, I think it will look better.’ The more I got into that, the more I decided to say, ‘Hey, you know what, I want to be a fashion designer. I want to design my own line of clothing.’ I have been designing ever since.”
What drives you as a fashion designer?
“What really drives me is the need for clothing that I feel women need to have. I would say it is not one specific thing that drives me, so it really depends on what I go through in life. What I see and what I hear can be an inspiration to other people. With this particular line within Tampa Bay Fashion Week, what got me going was when I went to see ‘Black Panther.’ During the first ten minutes of that movie, my mind just started going creatively. As the movie goes on you see other costumes and outfits and I was like, ‘Oh my god, these are beautiful! I have to get something, I have to do something.’ I could not wait to get home.”
Photo courtesy of Anne Phillips Photography
What advice would you give to someone else trying to become a fashion designer?
“Be patient. The first thing I would say is be patient. Do not give up. Do not give up because it does take time, and it takes a lot of hard work, but you have to be ready to face whatever is going to come against you. Be very confident, and be yourself in what it is you are going to do.”
Essence Flowers
Photo courtesy of Anne Phillips Photography
How did you start designing?
“I started designing when I was seven. When my parents got divorced I had to spend summers with my dad, which just meant he would drop me off at my grandmother’s. My grandmother sewed, so each summer we started to develop a project, from the start of the summer to end of the summer. I had to do a presentation at the end of every summer with her on whatever project we chose, so it kind of started from there.”
What inspires you to design?
“I like working on something from start to finish and I always had a fashion influence from my mom. She was always fly. She had a personal style and she probably could have been a stylist. Sometimes we did not have the budget for me to go shopping and get the stuff that I need, so I always went to my grandma and she would help me sew whatever I wanted.”
Photo courtesy of Anne Phillips Photography
How did you start designing for NFL teams?
“I had a fashion show and one of the reps from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came. They invited me and gave me some ideas for what they were looking for in their swimsuit calendar, so it went from me designing swimsuits for their annual calendar to doing their uniforms. Then from the Bucs, it kind of spread throughout that I was doing swimsuits and uniforms, so I picked up a couple teams along the way.”
What advice would you give to someone else trying to become a fashion designer?
“Do not give up. Under no circumstances, do not give up. I say this because it is very challenging to be a fashion designer because you are competing with the mall and you are competing with the internet. There are a lot of obstacles that can get in your way. I would say keep to going. There are a lot of things that could be in your way, but if it is your passion, keep going.”