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Top Billing explores New Yorks garment district
Top Billing explores New York's garment district
This Saturday at 6PM on #TopBilling, beyond the boutique windows of New York, Jeannie discovers the garment district where America’s top designers shop!
We head for New York, where Jeannie gets to shop for fabric where the designers do, learns to tailor an outfit like a couturier – and leaves Manhattan with haute couture fashioned by her own hand.
In 2009, Wall Street was the epi-centre of the global financial crisis and fashion was hit hard by the recession which followed. Out of sight of the runways, many who worked in the design and garment industry had to improvise. One of them was Kerri Quigley who had started her own clothing line and worked with renowned New York department store Bloomingdales for several seasons. Forced to close her line and struggling to find consistent work, Kerri began to teach a small sewing class for children.
It was a hit and soon, The Fashion Class was created in her home town of Brooklyn. In 2018, students from across America and the world enrol here and Jeannie was hoping to cram the course into a day visit and head home with a new outfit.
A highlight in our fashion focus day is the visit to the original, flagship store of Mood Fabrics, made so famous by reality tv. They boast four floors of every kind of fabric under the sun. Their in-house blog, On-the-Runway, also explains the hottest looks in fashion to help visitors make the perfect choice.
Once we had the fabric it was then down to business!
Combining the passion for design with the practical skills of a dress-maker, these classes give school students a head start in fashion.
Unlike a lot of the more out-there designs, seen on runways but which don’t necessarily get to market, this is about sewing real and wearable clothing.
Kerri also offers classes in creating accessories, illustration as well as fashion branding and marketing. But above all – fun. For a few hours, Jeannie loved putting her phone away and creating something real – not on a screen.
In the time it would have taken to shop for a boutique dress down 5 th Avenue or something alternative from The East Village, Jeannie had created one of her own.
A few pieces of brown paper, a marker pen and a length of fabric later, the design had come together in a sewing machine and Ms D. felt like a Jeannie-ous.
Given half a chance, could there be an inner designer in each of us or are some destined to create fashion and the rest of us – to wear it?
