St. Louis designers show-off differences
The St. Louis designers proved that there’s nothing homogeneous about the city’s style at Tuesday’s opening of Fashion Week held at the Contemporary Art Museum.
Ashley Dayley and Felicia Pease continued to turn heads with AFV, At First View. My favorite look of the night was a great printed sheath dress by the designing duo. The above-the-knee dress converted to a mini-skirt with a black zipper ringing around the thigh (pictured above with the bottom portion still attached). The rest of their looks were colorful, bold and floral. Dayley called it vintage sexy. The looks included a series of dresses with body hugging details balanced with feminine volume, no baby dolls in sight. One jacket should have carried a caution sign, but the rest of the collection was fun and fresh.
Paul Gibson’s collection was clean and simple in soft hues of plum, mocha and camel. He showed both men’s and women’s wear and did both with polish. A coral blue bias cut dress was a standout and his adeptness at hand-making men’s casual trousers was impressive (see the photo above). His looks for both sexes were body conscious, but not overtly so. He has a fine eye for form and detail.
Amy Johnson of KayOss Designs offered up a socialite collection that was charming and quietly grand. Playful straight skirts with tiered frayed silk fringe were paired with paperthin tees, scarf print skirts in bold hues were topped with form fitting color and silk dresses in muted color prints seemed tailor made for the fashion standout in the ladies-who-lunch crowd (see photo above). Signature tees this season held a single bold exclamation point. Very apt for her collection.
Lesley Timpe of Squasht showed off her cocktail martini dresses and a fresh collection of caps in tweeds and wool. Her aesthetic has a handmade quality, but in a good way. I loved the full skirts with the droopy pockets reminiscent of 1920s aprons, because the look seemed playful and ironic. These were not the calico prints you’d expect from a lady wearing pearls and dusting the living room, the looks seemed very much like mischievous daywear for the girl would might pair it with peep-toe pumps one day and high-top sneakers the next. In the photo at left, that’s Lesley in the middle.
Suzanne Lay rounded out the group of locals with a showing of wrapped dresses and some cocktail attire. Her best looks had fit and flare and flirty details on the sleeves, her worst look was an experiment and not one of my favorites — a bland biege, tiered and shredded above-the-knee cocktail dress that seemed to add about 20 pounds to the girth of the model. Judge for yourself in the photo at right. The designer, who is 4 months pregnant and has a 4-year-old at home already, stands between two much more successful looks, she’s the third from the left.
A wayward soul from Las Vegas, Nevada, who now calls St. Louis home and believes that fashion is relative and capricious, but style is always in favor. 
Amy Johnson of KayOss Designs has a beautiful black skirt and very pretty white silk top shown on your web site. What a lovely outfit! I’m sure anyone would like it for their “special occasion ” outfit.
Many of us in the online design/sewing community were flummoxed, and some rather outraged, when a very popular reissued pattern by Butterick showed up on the runway - credited to Ms. Dayley as an original design but was a complete ripoff (and copyright infringement) of this pattern and its original designer.
It’s astonishing the lack of integrity, and utter cluelessness that this designer showed in presenting this as her own “design”.
“Dayley called it vintage sexy.” We call it “ripoff.”
For more:
http://chronicallyuncool.blogspot.com/2008/03/butterick-60154790-on-runway.html
Comment to Ms.Hardy….. You state you are a part of the online design/sewing community. So I take it that you are not really a designer. Just one who pretends to be one on the internet. If your name is only found through pictures and comments on your blog site….then I would have to say your comment has no merit. Where are your “real world” designs featured? Have you had any of your work published? Someone who knows so much about Butterick patterns tells enough. It is what you know. I think your comments are intentionally cruel, and warrant a reply to your pettiness. Ashley Dayley is a wonderful and talented young designer with much potential. She is held in high reguard in the St. Louis community…not just for fashion…but for hair design as well as editorial work. Not to mention what a good person with a big heart. I assure you that this young woman means to in no way infringe on a copyright.
Her designs were fantasic! ‘Nuff said.
I’m sure Ms. Dayley is a very talented person, but it is clear that the dress in question is a copy. I don’t think it matters much whether the person who is raising this issue is themselves a fashion designer, but as a print designer I can tell you that this kind of business would not be tolerated in my community. It is good that she made such a mistake early and not at a time when it could cost her career. I hope she considers her choices in the future and learns from this mistake.
Ms. Dayley may or may not have talent, but it’s quite clear she has no integrity or self-respect. Otherwise, she would have never even considered passing something off as her own design when it wasn’t.
Makes one wonder what else was faked…
So, professional fashion designers are the only people allowed opinions about plagiarism? I think it would be interesting for Ms. Daley to call someone like Michael Kors and ask if she can borrow his current patterns to create her next collection. After all, there’s nothing wrong with that , right?
the line was not cohesive. and it looks like the dress is exactly the same patttern as shown. wow to me she doesnt have it together enough to call it a ‘line’. just lookks like random peices of clothing. nothing matches.
If a fashion show is just presenting some handmade clothes made after commercial sewing patterns, then quite a lot of people can participate. It’s just that they have enough self-respect and integrity not to call themselves a designer.