Phoenix Fashion Week takes place the first week of October. Here are three local designers to watch.
Laura Tanzer
For Laura Tanzer, inspiration could come from anything: the colors of an evening sky, a striking work of architecture, or simply her current mood. While working away in her Tucson atelier on her upcoming Spring 2016 collection, “Les Rayures des Fleurs,” for Phoenix Fashion Week, the Connecticut-born designer explained what inspires her and the ideal woman for whom she designs.
Trained at Parsons School of Design, New York University and the Fashion Institute of Technology, Tanzer has developed a penchant for designing clothes that a woman can throw on without too much consideration and still look elegant. Her airy cotton blouses and linen pants are constructed without a great deal of formality and are made to catch the breezes of Arizona’s summer months.
“My customer is 35-plus years old, and she has enough disposable income to be able to dress to her own style,” Tanzer says, defining her ideal client. “She is individual, intelligent, her own woman. She does not want to see her clothing on anyone else in her community, and she does not shop department stores.” lauratanzerdesigns.com
Hues of Ego – Natasha Duran
Taking on a new personality. Isn’t that what fashion is ultimately about? Creating a new character with seams is what Natasha Duran of Hues of Ego does well.
A former architecture major at ASU who studied fashion design at Collins College, Duran got her start with Phoenix Fashion Week by winning a T-shirt design contest, and then went on to start her own brand in 2014. Call it an identity crisis or style-schizophrenia, but Hues of Ego leaps from elegant trench coats, to barely-there miniskirts, back to cute blush cocktail dresses, then ends a show with a black gown fit for The Matrix. It is an unexpected, lavish and totally entrancing brand.
For her next collection for Phoenix Fashion Week, Duran goes deep with her inspiration. “This year’s collection is taking that same woman and going through her journey of twists and turns and bumps in the road to going for that ‘epic’ dream – whatever that may be – but her finding balance in it all.” You can expect to pay around $100-$900 for Hues of Ego fashions, available at Duran’s online store (huesofego.com).
Medium Apparel
It took a meeting with Jay-Z in New York City for Zac McDonald, co-founder and creative director of Medium Apparel, to realize he wanted to pursue a career in fashion design. In 2011, McDonald entered a contest with the rap mogul’s Rocawear clothing line and won. He got a behind-the-scenes look at Rocawear headquarters and there he saw his vision to start his own brand.
In February of 2012, the Arizona native set out to change the consumer mindset of what streetwear is all about by starting Medium Apparel. “Most people think of streetwear as black tees with white ink. We are very much about colors, patterns and having fun. We don’t take ourselves too seriously.” Medium Apparel is a line of casual, youth-driven and highly visual clothing. McDonald’s degree in graphic design from Collins College is put to use, as every article has some kind of illustrative flair, even a T-shirt with Benjamin Franklin and ‘Cream’ written across his face.
McDonald says he is fighting for streetwear to stay on the runway: “A lot of people don’t view streetwear as fashion, because the industry was built off of T-shirts. We embrace that, we love what we do and have no plans of changing.” McDonald says we can expect a softer side of streetwear in his next collection – a reinvented ‘90s hip-hop inspiration, drenched in florals and camouflage prints. mediumapparel.com
If You Go
Phoenix Fashion Week
October 1-3, 2015
Talking Stick Resort
9800 E. Indian Bend Rd., Scottsdale
phoenixfashionweek.com
