Project Arizona Featured Runway Designers

On October 18th, Tucson Fashion Week will present Project Arizona, a unique runway show that showcases the work of three exceptionally talented local designers. Find out more about TFW's three Project Arizona Featured Runway Designers below.

Images via Magnetic Threads

Meggen Connolley of Magnetic Threads is TFW 2013's Betsey's Choice Award winner. Meggen has been designing since March of 2012. Her primary inspiration is creating "form from something formless, creating structured art through geometric shapes." Meggen channels feminine power and beauty in her designs, and sees her lack of formal training as an asset allowing her to combine fabrics and shapes in innovative ways. Living amidst the powerful beauty of the Arizona desert and mountains (Meggen lives and creates in Bisbee, AZ) has taught her to channel "an endless stream of creative energy." 

Meggen says that her capsule collection for TFW 2014 is her best one to date. She has used her knack for interesting fabric combinations to create more structured garments. Her collection, Spiritual Warrior, "embodies the strength and beauty of the feminine spirit."

You can find more Magnetic Threads at Meggen's shop in Bisbee, in Beverly Hills at Shop-Enter, and in Los Gatos, CA. You can also visit her website for more of her looks. 

Images via Loreto Echevarria 

Loreto Echevarria of Lolo Chic has been designing for as long as she can remember. She says,  "When I look at any aspect of design, I always like to imagine what it would look like with my own spin on it." Her primary inspiration for her designs is the fabric itself. She lets the texture and color of the fabric speak to her. Her style icons Andy Warhol, Coco Chanel, and Frida Kahlo also serve as major design inspirations. And let's not forget how inspiring Tucson itself is to Loreto. She says that the "cool, edgy, eclectic and traditional" mix of styles in Tucson offer an endless source of inspiration.

Loreto's designs are created to inspire confidence. Their "effortless elegance" and flattering designs make them suitable for all body types. And her new collection for TFW 2014 is all about confidence. "If there was a style super hero," says Loreto, "my collection would be her wardrobe." Its geared towards women who aren't afraid to be bold and dramatic.

Lolo Chic designs are custom made, so you can schedule a private consultation with Loreto at her website.

Images via Estrella Sevilla

Estrella Sevilla showed a fashion presentation at TFW 2013 and has been busy every since! After taking a summer fashion design course at the prestigious Central St. Martins in London in 2011, Estrella enrolled at the Art Institute in Tucson for a BA in Fashion Design. Estrella was initially inspired to design as a response to the struggle to find clothes for herself because of her height. Once she started designing, however, she no longer wanted to design just for herself and now she thrives on creating clothes for others. Art, music, and even abstract objects feed her creativity. 

When asked what she has planned for TFW 2014, Estrella says, "This collection is like nothing I have done before; it is a combination of the expressionism art movement and minimalism. I will be showing clean silhouettes and texture. I am going for a dark/goth look but [also] sophisticated and elegant."

Estrella is open to creating custom pieces for those interested in purchasing her designs. She is also currently working on launching an online store and hopes to have it up in early 2015. You can see more of Estrella's designs on her website. 

Don't miss the Project Arizona Runway Show on October 18th at the Fox Theatre. Purchase your tickets here and here. 

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TFW Owners and Creative Directors: Melanie Sutton and Paula Taylor

Melanie Sutton (right) and Paula Taylor (left) are the Owners and Creative Directors of Tucson Fashion Week. They acquired the rights for TFW from its previous owner and relaunched Tucson Fashion Week in 2013. 

Melanie and Paula are committed to creating a professional platform for emerging regional, national, and international designers to showcase their work locally and nationally to consumers, buyers, and industry leaders. Through Tucson Fashion Week they are putting Tucson on the national fashion and retail landscape. Together, this dream team owns House of PM and creates fashion events, charitable partnerships, unique experiences, and iconic collaborations that all make TFW such a vibrant and memorable event.

Helping emerging designers reach a wider audience is what really inspires Melanie and Paula. They give designers the opportunity to showcase their work on one-of-a-kind professional runways before a wide audience of consumers and industry professionals, creating the special moments that could spark a designer's career.

They have also managed to bring a star-studded quality to Tuscon Fashion Week. Last year, Industry Icon Betsey Johnson showed on the TFW runway and this year is equally full of celebrity talent. With architect Nathan Colkitt, Emmy Award winning stylist and best selling author David Zyla, and this year's Industry Icon, Senior Vice President of Men’s Design for Tommy Bahama,  Joey Rodolfo, TFW 2014 is sure to be an event to remember.

And don't forget about the incredible Project Runway Showcase at the historic Fox Theatre in downtown Tucson. Former Project Runway and Project Runway All-Stars designers Peach Carr, Mila Hermanovski, Daniel Esquivel, Korto Momolu and of course , returning to the TFW runway for the second year, Bert Keeter. This night will also feature TFW's Project Arizona Featured Runway designers Estrella Sevilla, Magnetic Threads, and Loreto Echevaria.

Melanie Sutton and Paula Taylor, as the owners and creative directors of Tucson Fashion Week, have created a truly unique event that showcases the work of inspired industry professionals and talented emerging designers in the same venue. Don't miss a second of this year's event. Buy your tickets here!

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Lawless Denim: Rebellion With a Cause

Situated between a Verizon store and a bowling alley, the entrance to Lawless Denim appears as nondescript as the rest of downtown Phoenix’s glossy CityScape. But from the moment you walk in to the cool interior, you realize that you've stumbled upon something special. Immaculately made jeans hang from crisscrossed ropes to create a denim archway. The music, set to the perfect volume, is so effortlessly cool it convinces you that you too can pull off one of the buttery leather jackets that adorn the walls.

To your left you can catch a glimpse of the workroom, dominated by a huge cutting table, patterns organized against the wall and a giant American flag hanging from the ceiling.  To your right, rolls of selvedge denim (a term that derives from “self edged,” referring to the finished edges of the fabric) line the walls beside displays crafted as carefully as the merchandise.

The decor at Lawless Denim is a unique blend of the artisanal and the industrial. The denim and leather goods take center stage, but you’ll also see the shelves peppered in vintage cameras and heavy black sewing machines, most of them in perfect working order. Motorcycle helmets and goggles hang above the leather jackets and a painting of James Dean looks on from the corner, an avatar of the American style that Lawless Denim embodies. You get the feeling that this American rebel would get his jeans here too.

Roman Acevedo, Founder and President of Lawless Denim & Co., perfectly captures what Lawless is all about. In a simple black tee and a beautiful pair of dark indigo jeans made from a rare “rainbow selvedge,” revealed by the crisp cuff above his heavy boots, his salt-and-pepper hair slicked back from his face, Acevedo embodies the timeless cool that is Lawless.

Originally from San Diego, Acevedo’s background is in food. He trained as a chef at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. After a few years back in California, he returned to Phoenix ready for a change. A self-proclaimed denim enthusiast, Acevedo’s true passion is for American manufacturing. Almost everything you see in the store is created by Lawless Denim right in the heart of downtown Phoenix. Acevedo believes that “American Made” should not mean out of reach. Each pair of jeans is ethically sourced and lovingly crafted by American artisans, and Acevedo believes that they should also be affordable, not despite the fact that they are American Made, but because of it.

Transparency, says Acevedo, is something that he wishes there were more of in American manufacturing. He doesn’t just talk the talk. Customers can see Lawless jeans being crafted while they’re being measured for their own custom pair. The small workroom, though still in use, no longer meets the high demand. Lawless Denim & Co. now needs a larger workspace. Most of the vintage machines on which the clothes are crafted have already been moved to the factory space, also in downtown Phoenix and there is currently a Kickstarter campaign to buy more machines so that the company can hire even more American craftsmen. Vintage looms are also in place in the factory waiting to create the first batch of Lawless American-made chambray denim.  Soon enough, you’ll be able to buy a pair of Lawless jeans where even the fabric was crafted in Phoenix.

Buying a pair of jeans from Lawless Denim & Co. is a completely different experience from a couple of hours spent trying on ill-fitting jeans in a cramped dressing room. It begins with the perfect denim. Most of these denims come in batches of 50 to 100 yards, and once it’s gone it can’t be restocked making each pair of jeans something truly special. Roman asks what pair of jeans you have in mind. Perhaps you describe a vintage-inspired pair of high-waisted cigarette jeans that end right above where an ankle strap would hit and Roman helps you select a beautiful (and rare) dark indigo denim with a white selvedge. Unlike most selvedge denim, this one has some stretch. Roman says it will be perfect for skinny jeans.  

Next, he asks if you prefer a zipper or button fly and then you can pick out every detail down to the color of the stitching on your custom jeans and the fabric that will line all the pockets. You might pick black and copper buttons, gray stitching, and a dark plaid fabric in greens and blue for the pocket lining that goes beautifully with the deep blue of the denim.

After you’ve designed your jeans, you are measured so that they will fit you perfectly. They take ten different measurements to ensure the perfect fit. Here’s where it’s handy to come dressed in pants, as you’re going to get up close and personal measuring everything from your waist to the exact lengths of the front and back rises.

And then you’re done. A month or so later, you return for a second fitting and if the custom jeans aren’t to your liking they make you a new pair and sell the old ones at a steeply discounted price. It can take as little as ten minutes to design your own custom jeans, which at Lawless Denim you can get for less than the price of a new pair of Sevens.  

At Lawless Denim you can feel great, not only about your new pair of jeans but about everything that went into making them. With customer service that makes buying jeans enjoyable rather than painful and a real commitment to quality and American industry, Lawless Denim & Co. is revolutionizing the way that consumers experience shopping. Here, every pair of jeans is the perfect pair of jeans.  

[Don't miss Lawless Denim, TFW 2014's Featured American Made Designer, at the TFW 2014 Launch Party at Connect Coworking on October 16th in downtown Tucson, where they will reveal LD & Co., their brand new ready-to-wear line. Purchase your tickets here.]

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Estrella Sevilla in Mexico

Last year's student designer, Estrella Sevilla, who will be one of TFW 2014's Featured Runway Designers, recently showed her collection "From Nowhere" at Sinoloa Fashion Week, 12th Edition in Culiacan, Sinoloa, Mexico. Her inspiration for "From Nowhere" was the origins of humanity and our vision for the future.

Estrella is also spending the summer in London taking a course in Innovative Pattern Cutting from the prestigious Central St. Martins. We are so excited to see what Estrella has in store for us at TFW 2014.

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