Ideal Bite

Last weekend, I went to a student fashion show, where a group of young designers from San Francisco's Art Institute showed off their original creations. The students who put together these shows often creatively incorporate used materials in their designs and obviously do their original stitching locally.

So what happens when they get more recognition and need to produce more samples, maybe even start their own lines for retail? For this group, there's a great option, which we gave a shout out to in the SF edition awhile back - MIO: Made in Oakland (the program and product dev manager, Hiroko Kurihara, was one of the show's judges). This place offers local production services for all kinds of designers, eliminating the need for them to take their production overseas.

Here's hoping that more businesses like this pop up in areas where art students and other designers are ready to translate their designs into the real thing.

-Jenifer…off to dream this dress by Erik Stultz (see photo, by Chaz Schaad) into my closet…