New Orleans’ eye for fashion and her designers
7th March 2011 · 0 Comments
By Kelly Parker
The Louisiana Weekly
As the city takes a breather from the festivities of Fat Tuesday, another form of revelry gets underway with Fashion Week NOLA, March 15-18 at the Sugar Mill in the warehouse district and NOLA Fashion Week, March 21-26 at the Ogden Museum.
New Orleans fashion designer Brennan Manuel
Inspired by Fashion Week in New York City, Fashion Week NOLA (FW NOLA) and NOLA Fashion Week have been created to spotlight the talents and collections of established and emerging fashion designers, brand houses, regional boutiques, and retailers in a series of runway shows, fashion events, and exhibitions, proving the crescent city can be recognized for more that its musical talents and authentic cuisine.
Fashion Week New Orleans’ Top Designer Competition will spotlight up-and-coming designers while providing an opportunity for them to gain exposure and global recognition. Designers will be selected by the fashion panel to participate in the Top Design Competition. The finalists will present their collection in a high-energy runway show at Fashion Week New Orleans’ opening night.
Native Brennan Manuel is one of the nine industry movers and shakers from New Orleans (and the southern region) that FW NOLA will showcase.
Manuel, 26, a menswear designer and patternmaker, studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology and has worked under noted designers Ermenegildo Zenga and Jil Sander.
“Fashion is ever changing and always evolving when it is in the right hands, however this concept does not seem to be as prevalent in menswear as it is in women’s clothing,” he says.
Manuel’s vision: the “Urban Graduate” is a student of life and his environment – men between the ages of 20 to 35, representing a new movement, according to the designer. His clothing label, Camrich Mann, reflects a group of fashion forward men who understand contemporary trends, while staying individually innovative.
“This is my first time actually presenting in a fashion week event on this level,” Manuel told The Louisiana Weekly. “My designs for the show will definitely be “wearable” looks. I strive to make clothing that is subtly innovative as far as fit, fabrication, and design details so that the clothing can still perform its original purpose…to actually be worn.”
It’s been a long journey in a short time for the designer, who started a line of t-shirts while he was a student at Ben Franklin High School.
“I would try and sell them and give them some to friends for marketing purposes,” Manuel says. “I had about 80 designs in my sketchbook by the time I graduated from high school.”
After studying marketing in college, Manuel enrolled in Tulane Law School to help stay atop the business aspect of the fashion industry. However, he soon realized the difficulty to flex his creative muscle.
His pursuit led him to a Metairie fabric shop. Manuel took a sewing class in the fall of 2008.
“The first garment I ever constructed was a knit A-line dress with a gathered hem and pockets; but I needed to learn more,” he said.
Manuel then began to study runway shows. “I was enamored by the menswear shows,” he said. “The designs in the different collections expressed themselves with such intensity, as if they had something to prove. I saw masculinity portrayed in ways that I had never seen or even thought of for that matter; so I began to design again.”
It was then Manuel looked into applying to fashion design schools, and came across FIT (The Fashion Institute of Technology) the only school to offer a specific menswear design program.
Just as his fifth semester of law school ended, Manuel got word that he was accepted to FIT. He took a leave of absence from law school to study under the tutelage of Mark-Evan Blackman, chairperson of FIT’s Menswear Design Department and designer of many notable lines including Joan Vass, Lacoste, Evan Picone and Perry Ellis.
Manuel did return home to finish his last semester of law school, and brought a little of the New York fashion scene with him; hoping not only to showcase a new vision in menswear, but an economic opportunity for his hometown as well.
“I want to expand and have my pieces manufactured and sold here specifically because I’m from New Orleans and I want to give back and add to the art and culture that is already here,” he says. “Of course I would like my clothing to be sold all over the world, but I’m hoping that I can make New Orleans the hub and bring more jobs here.”
For more on Manuel’s label, Camrich Mann, or more information on Fashion Week NOLA, go to www.fashionweeknola.com. For tickets and information on NOLA Fashion Week, visit www.nola-fashionweek.com.
This article originally published in the March 7, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
