Westlake Teen Stars in First Project Runway Junior Competition

Photo by Barbara Nitke

Victoria Cohen is bringing spunk to the first-ever season of Project Runway Junior on Lifetime. The show will host a dozen fashion designers ages 13 to 17 as they vie for a $25,000 cash prize and a feature in Seventeen Magazine by showcasing their design skills in front of a panel of judges that include host Tim Gunn, Kelly Osbourne and Aya Kanai, the executive fashion editor of Cosmopolitan and Seventeen Magazine. Despite the national spotlight her designs will have when the first episode airs at 9 p.m. Nov. 12, 17-year-old Westlake native Victoria is more than a reality TV star: She's showed her designs at Cleveland Fashion Week 2015, studied at School of Rock, toured with her band Rockapocalypse and launched her own graphic T-shirt line PUNX. "A really big part of me is self-expression," she says. We chatted with Victoria about her local roots, how they inspired her and pushed her to the fashion stage of New York City.

CM: How did you get into fashion design?
V: I've been watching Project Runway since the very first season when I was 6 years old.  I always sketched and I always wanted to be a fashion designer, but I never really did anything about it.  But then I heard that Cleveland had a fashion week. The summer before, I started making T-shirts. I called the director and she reviewed some of my work and then they said that I could show, so I started working on my collection. That is when I really knew that I wanted to be a designer.

CM: Do you see the potential for a fashion industry in Cleveland?
V: When I go to New York, it's draining, and it's like a competition. In New York, a lot of people kind of get faded out but I feel like if I were able to bring a fashion scene to Cleveland, it would definitely catch a lot of attention because the people who will succeed and who have the passion — they're gonna shine. I identify with Cleveland. It just feels like home to me.

CM: How do you think your time on the show has influenced you as a designer and do you feel like your art has changed from it?
V: I think [designing] is definitely a part of my identity but being on the show, I think I found another side of myself. I don't ever want to be identified as just one thing. I have lots of ideas and I think I just need to take time to really define them. I think being on the show helped me find who I was and see kind of all of my creativity, rather than just 'I am this designer'.

"Project Runway" Star Althea Harper Heats Up Fashion Week Cleveland

        Growing up in Dayton, Althea Harper loved sketching figures and being creative. Then after college she landed a spot on Project Runway and her life changed. She eventually launched her own line, Althea Harper, and has dressed stars such as the Kardashian sisters. The blond bombshell warmed up Fashion Week Cleveland's Retail's Night Out at the 5th Street Arcades on March 13 with her resort wear. The historic building was filled with boutique duds for a market-style shopping experience where patrons could talk to the designers about their creations. See more of her line at the runway show and black-tie reception March 21 at the Arcade. We talked with the Ohioan about her favorite design and what's inspiring her now.

Althea Harper, third from the left, stands with models wearing designs from  her resort Althea Harper line.

Q: How has your fashion line, Althea Harper, evolved?

A: On Project Runway, I started off with evening gowns and the judges really responded to my ready-to-wear designs. I now have a swimwear, activewear, baby and resort line.

Q: Tell me about your favorite design.

A: It was a knitwear project that I worked on in my junior year of college. It was an extravagant coat down to the floor with two double layers, and it took me three months to design. 

Q: What's inspiring your designs now?

A: Nature! I love looking at animals.  They have different colors, but they have fun prints.  God really figured it out when he put it all together. The colors float together and come together well.  

Q: What's it like having your designs shown at Fashion Week Cleveland?

A: It's always nice to see my designs come down the runway because it glamorizes them, but  I appreciate this [Fashion Week Cleveland] because you can see someone actually wear it.

Q: What's next for you?

A: Right now, I want to continue with my resort line it's  self entitled [Althea Harper] and the swimwear line. I'm still figuring things out. I just had a daughter 10 months ago, so I'm trying to figure out how to find that balance.  

The City Gets Dressed up for Fashion Week

Cleveland is known for many things — Great Lakes beer, the Rock Hall, the first casino in Ohio -- but fashion isn’t one of them.

Yet every year since 2002, Cleveland has hit the runway with the third-largest Fashion Week event in the country, behind only New York and Los Angeles.

Fashion Week Cleveland’s climactic moment comes Saturday: a runway show and black-tie gala at the Halle Building downtown. Friday night brings another major event, a screening of the documentary Dressed.

The film, showing at the Cleveland Museum of Art, tells the story of Cleveland-born Nary Manivong (pictured), who reached his goal of becoming a designer, but only after he struggled with ruthless competition.

Director David Swajeski calls Dressed a realistic depiction of the fashion industry, not the idealized version of fashion-based reality shows. Project Runway and similar shows don’t accurately portray what it’s like to try to make it in the industry starting from scratch, he says.

“It shows you that if you really believe in yourself and you have a dream, you can accomplish things,” Swajeski says, “despite not having some of the things other top designers or design firms have.”

Dressed has also screened in New York City, Miami, Dallas, San Francisco and Columbus.

Saturday’s runway show includes designer Lotty Lewis, who spent most of her life on Cleveland’s West Side. Kent State University fashion instructor Trista Greider’s collection of wedding gowns for the modern woman will close the show.

“Cleveland has a great group of designers, and they really make [Fashion Week Cleveland] a special occasion,” says Swajeski. “It gives them a stage, a place to get recognized. Now, talent is coming from everywhere. It’s not just coming from New York, Paris, or Milan.”

The film is screening on Friday, May 11 at 6:45 pm in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Morley Lecture Hall. Tickets are $9, or $7 for seniors, students, and CMA members.

The runway show will take place at 9:30 pm on Saturday, May 12 in the Halle Department Store Building Fountain Room, 1212 Huron Road. VIP tickets $100, Special guest tickets $40. Cocktail party begins at 8. Tuxedo required.

Art + Clothing = Wearable Art

Around 100 fashion hounds and artsy types gathered at Metropolis nightclub downtown last night to experience unclothed: A Mixed Media Runway Event, one of the many highlights of Fashion Week Cleveland (this one using green sustainable materials to produce wearable art). The show did get a fashionably late start, but eventually the lights dimmed, the music pumped up and the show went on. Nine impressive designers showing everything from evening gowns made of garbage bags by Congduy Luong to denim overalls shackled in handcuffs by Tracy Kiefer strutted their creations down the runway. I loved the paint splattered Obama/Biden blazer by Paul Sadler, Kezia Pearson's Chinese flower printed gold silk mini dress with the short bustled train and Hannah Vaughan's red layered ruffled mini skirt, which resembled a rose in full bloom. The finale wedding dress by Vincent Quevedo (above) was outstanding. It was expertly tailored and the fabric was impeccable. So not typical as the jaw-dropping, eye-popping wedding dresses of past fashion weeks (i.e. fashion designer Darklord's gross, yet very memorable "blood" red paint splattered anti-war wedding dress). — Frenchye Bush