Sew you want
to be a designer?
DIY is so chic right now. Whether it’s taking
community sewing classes or getting a degree
in apparel design, the Willamette Valley has
options for you.
‘The beauty spectrum is
changing,’ says model
Desiree Kuenkele, with
Seams Legit’s Lillie
Ledwell.
•
The Redoux Parlour in the Whit offers classes
for several different skill levels, from basic
stitches to pattern design to construction.
Sessions run for four weeks on Wednesday
evenings ($70). The next sessions start May
8. They also offer internships. For more info,
visit redouxparlour.com.
•
Deluxe on Willamette hosts custom intern-
ships and apprenticeships, which can focus
on construction, design, merchandising or
marketing. For more info, call 541-686-0205
or email info@deluxefashionshop.com
•
The UO Craft Center at the EMU has
classes for sewing, knitting, felting, silk
painting, silkscreen printmaking and
jewelry-making year round. Visit craftcenter.
uoregon.edu for details and registration.
•
OSU’s School of Design and Human
Environment — featuring a program in
apparel design — was named one of the Top
20 Fashion Schools in the nation by
Fashionista.com alongside Parsons The New
School for Design and the Fashion Institute
of Technology. The college also offers
programs in textiles and merchandising
management. Visit wkly.ws/1gi for more
information.
•
LCC offers career training in fashion design
with six different levels of coursework
including body measurement,
patternmaking and creative design
implementation. Visit wkly.ws/1gh for details.
PHOTO COURTESY MELISSA MANKINS / PAPER MOON PHOTO STUDIO
Model fitting at Paper
Moon Photo Studio
April 15
EFW production team Laura Lee Laroux,
Mac Goodwin and Mitra Chester.
PHOTOS COURTESY CLAIRE FLINT LAST / PAPER MOON PHOTO STUDIO
“You have to be pretty confident to get in front of a
camera with a pair of underwear on,” she says.
For the designers of Seams Legit, Courtney Wade
and Lillie Ledwell, the choice to represent more
average body types is very intentional. “We’re both
curvy women,” Wade says. “I like to work with curvy
shapes.” The pinup-inspired Seams Legit features
everything from lingerie and swimwear to evening
gowns for the avant-garde runway show at The
Shedd. Wade and Ledwell point out that there are
some practical reasons for designers to make smaller
sizes — they use less fabric and designing for smaller
bodies without curves is simpler.
“It is very easy to make something for a size 2,”
Wade says. “It’s much more complicated to make
something that’s going to fit somebody with all different
shapes. Every size 8 does not look the same.”
“It’s not just straight up and down,” Ledwell adds.
“That’s what is great about Eugene — the models
here are all shapes and sizes,” Wade says. She adds
that a few models were insecure, saying, “My boobs
aren’t perfect — I breastfed.” Wade, who recently had a
baby, laughs. “I’ve been breastfeeding. I get this!” She
says, “I don’t need someone who’s small so my stuff
looks good no matter what. I don’t care if you’ve had a
baby — I can make something look great on you.”
The Models
Desiree Kuenkele looks like a woman straight out
of a Mad Men-era Coca Cola advertisement: Her pin-
curled hair is a Lucille Ball-red, her wide smile is
framed by cherry rouge lips and her figure is
reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe. Until she came to
Eugene, however, she never thought modeling was
an option. At 26, Kuenkele says, “I feel like I’m too
old, too short and too fat. You know, technically.”
Kuenkele is originally from Indiana, where she studied
fashion merchandising at Ball State University. When
it came to the local fashion shows there, she did hair
and makeup but never modeled. “I just didn’t even
think it was a possibility. For the runway shows …
everyone was super tiny. No one was even making
clothes for any other size than 2,” she says. “Here,
they want curvy girls instead of being like ‘Oh,
nothing will fit you.’”
Kuenkele will be modeling the designs of Seams
Legit, So Fresh, Freudian Slip and VaVaVie. She is
perhaps most excited to walk the runway in a design
by VaVaVie, which is inspired by a peacock with
emerald green velvet shorts complete with tail and a
corset bedazzled with jewels. When asked if she’s
nervous as a first-time model to walk down the
runway in underwear, Kuenkele shakes her head. “I
feel more comfortable naked than I do in clothes,” she
says. She explains that it’s all about confidence and
letting go of your fears, and she points to her parents
for her self-esteem. “They would compliment not only
how pretty I am but my character.”
Whereas Kuenkele is 1950s glam, Dory Lou is
earthy punk: She wears angular tortoise shell glasses,
her septum is pierced with a simple silver hoop and
her chestnut brown hair has been shaved close to her
head except for a modest Mohawk. This is Lou’s
second year with EFW and she originally got involved
in modeling over a year ago when she saw a Craigslist
ad posted by Jennifer Brown, whom she will be
modeling for this year in addition to Seams Legit,
Spandex Body and Sparkle Glitter Glow. But Lou, who
is the mother of a 10-year-old, never aspired to be a
model while growing up in California. “I grew up as a
beautiful young lady with a horrible body image,” she
says. “When I was 24, I moved to Eugene, and the
body image in Eugene is so much more accepting
and the men are different about it. The men don’t
objectify women like they do in California and I feel
like that’s really helped.”
Lou says that local designers have helped her feel
comfortable and valued in her own body as well.
“Designers were really excited about my body. I had a
lot of them approach me, ‘Would you please model
this?’” she says. “I was really surprised because I’m
not tall and skinny. I’m short and stocky and full of
curves.” Lou would like to see more womanly bodies
on the runway and she thinks part of that responsibility
falls on fuller-figured women. “If the only people who
are going to put their bodies out there are stick
figures — these skinny, skinny girls — then that’s what
we’re going to think is a beautiful body. So more of us
wonderfully voluptuous, round, soft women need to
put our bodies out there and be like, ‘No. This is
woman.’” ■
Eugene Fashion Week kicks off with the swimsuit and lingerie show 10
pm Wednesday, May 1, at Oak Street Speakeasy; $10. The Shedd will host
the ready-to-wear show 8 pm Friday, May 3, and the avant-garde show 8
pm Saturday, May 4; $12 adv., $15 door. Visit eugenefashionweek.com for
more information.
eugeneweekly.com • A pril 25, 2013
13