Blogs

We're almost through the full dozen designers competing in the Tamarac Square Fashion Project. Here's to Alec, who loves Jackie O and Maris the Great!

Name: Alec Smith

Company name: Aki Getsu

Years designing: 10

Bio: Alec Smith's obsession with design started when he attended Denver School of the Arts and majored in costuming and stage tech. He produced his first collection and show at thirteen. Since then, Alec has been going almost non-stop. Currently, he is working on his associate's degree at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. After graduation, he hopes to earn his bachelor's at Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion. Eventually, Alec would love to head my own design house.

Denver celebrity you'd most like to design for?
Maris the Great and the Faggots of Death

For a full slideshow of the activity on Wednesday, March 28, click here.

Five minutes, a dress form, a swath of fabric, some pins and a belt. What could you make out of that?

Cat's guessing she could make a giant ball of nothingness. Yes, she's pretty sure she would have melted down on the runway if she'd had to compete in last night's 5 Minute Fashion Challenge that kicked off the Tamarac Square Fashion Project.

Before a crowded house, a ton of flashing cameras, god and everyone, the twelve competing designers had just five minutes to pin, push and prod the fabric into something that would wow the judges (Cat included).

To the right are a few of the looks — but you'll have to go watch the slideshow here to see who won!

Agree? Disagree? Post your vote below. The designer who wins the most online comments will score some free tickets to something cool!

Next week's challenge: For the runway show on Wednesday, April 4, each designer must create the pefect little black dress, using only a $150 voucher from Denver Fabric.

Many of you met Crystal Sharp on March 28 during the kick-off of the Tamarac Square Fashion Project, but do you know if she prefers Tim or Heidi, polkadots or camo? Keep reading to find out!

Name: Crystal Sharp

Company name: She She Boutique

Years designing: 10+

Bio: Tucked away between Lincoln and Broadway on Bayaud Street near the Baker District, the ambiance of boutique She She revolves around custom and one-of-a-kind designs created by proprietor Crystal Sharp. Ensembles are made from the finest fabrics available, with touches of super "femme" details like Chantilly lace and elaborate beadwork. Gemstones adorn tables in the form of whimsical jewelry. Rarely working from a pattern, the modern Victorian fashions of Crystal Sharp are made to be sophisticated while retaining a lust-worthy feel to them. Filling a much-needed niche in the Denver metro area, boutique She She stands out as a hidden treasure; where one can find unique clothing and innovative, yet feminine, accessories.

The Tamarac Square Fashion Project debuts this evening, March 28, so in honor of that, Cat took a little dose of her own questionnaire. If you wanted to know, Cat has answered... See you on the runway at 7 p.m. , 7777 East Hampden Avenue.

Name: The Cat's Pajamas

Company name: Westword

Years designing: Since I was a kitten.

Denver celebrity you'd most like to design for?
Pam Grier

What inspires you? (No fair saying everything; be specific.)
Fabric. I fall in love with fabric and then decide what to do with it.

Meet Tricia. She likes big Rottie dogs, polkadots and Dr. Suess. What will she send down the runway during the Tamarac Square Fashion Project? Come find out at the kick-off on Wednesday, March 28, at 7 p.m.

Name: Tricia Hoke

Company name: Potential Fashions
Years designing: 7, but I've always made clothes for myself and my friends growing up.

Bio: Tricia Hoke learned how to sew at age five and would "revamp" her paper dolls' wardrobes and create spring and fall collections for them. Tricia went to Emily Griffith Opportunity School and completed the Professional Sewing Program. She also worked at Buffalo Exchange, which gave her experience in fashion-show production and retail.

Name: Mona Lucero

Company name: Mona Lucero Design Boutique

Years designing: 24

Bio: Mona Lucero was born in San Francisco but raised in Grand Junction. At the age of four she decided she wanted to be an artist, and in 1983 she received her B.F.A. from the University of Colorado.

After arts school she went to New York City to attend Fashion Institute of Technology, where she learned the basics of fashion design.

We're already at contestant #7 for the Tamarac Square Fashion Project -- just five more to go. Keep track of everyone as we get ready for the big showdown on Wednesday night, March 28, at 7 p.m., when everyone can come and meet the twelve designers and hear what challenge they'll face first.

Name: Gino Velardi

Company name: Gino Velardi Fashions

Years designing: 7 years...as a real business, not a hobby.

Bio: Gino Velardi was born and raised in Denver, where he was drawn to the art community. Initially, Gino tapped into fashion design by constructing fashionable costumes for small productions. In 2001, he began designing clothing many considered "a work-of-art on a woman's body."

Nancy Sedar Sherman is on her way to the Fashion Project Tamarac Square. But does she like Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan? Find out below!

Name: Nancy Sedar Sherman

Company name: Nancy Sedar Designs

Years designing: Since high school

Bio: Nancy Sedar Sherman is a Denver native. Although she's lived in other exciting places, such as Sydney, Australia, New York and San Francisco, she always come back to Denver for the lifestyle, the mountains and family and friends.

Give it up for Ms. Equillibrium, our latest victim in the road to Fashion Project Tamarac Square!

Name: Deb Henriksen

Company name: Equillibrium Clothing

Years designing: Organically all my life; as a profession, about 6 years.

Bio: Growing up in Naperville, Illinois, Deb Henriksen's interests were heavily focused on drawing and sewing, but she also spent time around Motocross and instructed skiing at a local resort. After a family trip to Keystone during her sophomore year of high school, she fell in love with the mountains and eventually moved out here to attend Colorado State University in Fort Collins. She's called Colorado home for the past seventeen years.

Name: Jose Clark

Company name: I'll start with "Maclovia" for Private Ladies Couture. (So, ladies look for it in the future... maclovia.com)

Years designing: Just one

Bio: I have a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and did that for almost eight years. I was doing well, but there was something missing, something that could make me feel satisfaction for what I do.

I started to study some graphic design, buy more art magazines and look to more design books, until one day I discovered something known as Haute Couture. Which amazed me. It was after this discovery that I decided to study fashion design, found a school to get started and got involved. I started to fall in love with this everyday until I convinced myself to go further into this type of Design.

The profiles continue of the twelve designers selected to complete in the Tamarac Square Fashion Project. The winner scores two tickets to New York Fashion Week this fall -- which would better than sex for most of the competitors.

Name: Kandyce Hudson

Company name: Kandyce Kreations and the KMH8 Custom Design Studio

Years designing: 17

Bio: Kandyce Kreations began her career as a student at Cornell University. After graduating with a degree in Textiles, Apparel and Design, Kandyce moved west to Colorado. With experience as a sample maker for a local formalwear designer, she began offering her services as personal designer and custom clothier to the local community on a project-by-project basis. Currently Kandyce is developing her first women's wear line and a designer bridal and formalwear collection, which she looks forward to presenting in 2008.

Meet our second victim in the Tamarac Square Fashion Project rundown.

Name: Stephanie Ohnmacht

Years designing: Sewing since I was seven.

Bio: At seven I was given a beat-up sewing machine, scrap fabric and a license to sew anything I could dream of. Since my sisters on the farm were uncooperative models, I turned my designing skills to the animals and dolls, who were soon sporting some of the latest fashion designs. Sewing became my passion, much to the joy of any local fabric store. I fed this passion by competing in 4-H competitions for ten years during my youth.

In preparation for the March 28 kick off of the Tamarac Square Fashion Project, The Cat's Pajamas got in touch with each of the finalists and asked them a series of questions about themselves, their views on fashion and random other must-knows (red chili or green chile; Ritter or Hickenlooper!). Cat will post one a day until for the next twelve days. Here's the first victim...

Name: Armando Thomas Guerra

Company name: Love Mondo Trasho

Years designing: 9

Cat didn't think it was possible, but she is judged out. She has nothing snide or snarky left to say. At least for a few days.

It wasn't Fashion Week, a trip to Coyote Ugly or even her brother's upcoming nuptials that finally wore her down. It was the Fashion Project at Tamarac Square.

Cat may have found a new obsession: the Hyundai QarmaQ. The concept car, which debuted this week at the Geneva Motor Show, is just a prototype overseas, but it looks super sleek, and the skin is made from recycled plastic. Plus, it has a diesel engine in it, so you can run biodiesel! Of course there's more to learn about the QarmaQ, but the green design is very applause worthy. And besides, it looks a helluva lot cooler than the Prius.