Catholic Standard and Times - CS&T’s modest fashion designer hits the ‘runway’

Sew much fun
CS&T’s modest fashion designer hits the ‘runway’

By christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer

The first dress designed by Nicki Serrano — the winner of the The Catholic Standard & Times’ Grade School Modest Fashion contest — never made it onto a hanger. As soon as she stitched the final stitch, she put it on.

And the first runway the gleeful Nicki graced in her colorful, reversible dress was 25 miles long.

That’s the the distance between the Blue Bell workroom of the Catholic clothing designer who showed Nicki how to sew and the Serrano family home in the Somerton section of Philadelphia, where Nicki is a fifth-grader at St. Christopher School.

“I was so happy, ” the 10-year-old fashionista said, explaining why she couldn’t wait to wear the dress. “It looks so pretty.”

This past May, Nicki, daughter of Oscar and Michelle Serrano, was named the winner in The CS&T student fashion contest’s grade school division, out of more than 450 entries. Her design was a classic chartreuse shift adorned with dark pink flowers.

After reading about The CS&T contest, Michele Fowler, a children’s clothing designer from St. Helena Parish in Blue Bell, volunteered to help the winner create a real version of the winning garment.

Fowler said she had a prize pupil in Nicki: “She’s a quick learner — curious and eager to learn. She has an eye for fashion, an eye for design, and is very creative.

“She was a lot of fun to work with,” Fowler added. “She got right in there and was asking me about the machine. She wanted to know how to thread it, how to use it. She kept sitting down at the machine [asking] ‘Can I practice again?’

“She’s an incredible little girl.”

As providence would have it, Fowler already had in stock a fabric that was identical to Nicki’s design — green material accented by deep pink flowers.

Fowler suggested they make the dress reversible, with one side of green and pink and the other of blue and green.

“She was excited about that,” Fowler said.

And “surprised,” according to Nicki.

“She looked absolutely beautiful in her dress,” Fowler said. The bright colors, she said, enhance Nicki’s skin tone. “It’s fashionable because the colors and the style of the dress are more of a classic design. It’s timeless — it’s never going to go out of style.”

Nicki had compliments for Fowler as well. “She was really nice. She taught me how to do it. It went really well.”

The green and pink dress has a tie in the back, and a matching headband. The reverse side has a sash, and a matching button hair-tie.

And it’s modestly knee-length, Fowler said.

Although the dress is now in Nicki’s bedroom closet, “I look at it a lot,” she said. And her family and friends have given her dress rave reviews, she added.

At press time on Friday, Aug. 17, Nicki was planning to wear the green and pink dress to St. Christopher’s Church on Sunday.

The dress-making took a day. Nicki and her mother arrived at Fowler’s house at 10 a.m. and were out the door with the dress by 4 p.m.

In addition to the actual sewing, “we were all laughing and talking,” Fowler said. “We had a great time.”

According to Nicki, the circular armholes proved to be the most difficult part of the project. Hemming the dress was easiest, because all she had to do was “fold and sew in a straight line.”

Nicki described Fowler’s many sewing machines as “really cool.”

Fowler, 37, is a language arts, computer and library science instructor at Our Lady of Lourdes School. She is also the president of the Annie Quinn Company in Blue Bell, a semi-custom manufacturer of clothing for girls in sizes 2T to 10. The business is named after her second daughter.

The three Fowler daughters — Samantha, 9, Annie, 8, and Kelly, 5 — were also eager to assist Nicki. The showed her how to make the hair ties.

Nicki aspires to be a designer or an actress one day. During their day together, Fowler offered her some practical design tips: “I encouraged Nicki to look at pattern books at the store … [and to] mix and match, and be creative.”

Because she had so much fun under Fowler’s guidance, Nicki plans to keep sewing “again and again,” she said.

For other fledgling designers who don’t know where to begin, Fowler suggested embellishing a pair of blue jeans with fashionable patches or flowers.

Meanwhile, she told Nicki to come back anytime to sew, and the debuting designer’s parting words were: “We’ll be back really soon.”

For more information about Fowler’s children’s clothing design company, Annie Quinn, access the Web site www.anniequinn.com.

CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.

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