Eyes for fashion

COEUR d’ALENE — Michaela Coy is hoping for a career in fashion design.

She’s off to a good start.

A wedding dress she created from an older one will be featured on a runway Saturday night.

“I took the whole thing apart and restructured it,” Coy said. “It’s kind of been given a new life.”

Same for Josie Deuel.

She’ll have two of her dresses in the “Seventh Heaven” fashion show at The Resort Plaza Shops.

She, too, took unsold wedding dresses and made them into something even more stunning.

“People sometimes don’t appreciate certain features,” Deuel said. “Take those away and it immediately creates a beautiful dress.”

The two are among several local fashion designers whose creations will be featured in the free fashion show being put on by Cloud Nine Bridal.

Owner Lisa Seher said she’s hoping the event gives the young fashion designers an opportunity to showcase their talents and a chance to repurpose perfectly good wedding dresses.

“When you own a bridal store, dresses get damaged or retired, not sellable,” she said. “All of those end up in my basement.”

Seher would rather they be elsewhere.

So she invited her employees to pick out a few outdated gowns and turn them into something magical — a dress, a jacket, ensemble, whatever their imagination and skills could conjure.

“I’m not going to do this forever, so I want to encourage all my girls to have fun and get creative,” said Seher, who will have a coat she made for the show on the runway.  "Just enjoy the process and not be stressed. When you’re in this business you have to be creative and have fun or else you go crazy.”

The young women spent time over the past few months doing just that.

About 25 outfits will be displayed and for sale, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Most will be wedding dresses. Some will be casual and formal. Some designers will model their own outfits. 

Anne Kuyers is eying a fashion career and made two new dresses for the show.

“I didn’t really change the old dress. I just added all the floral and made a veil to match, and then added sleeves,” she said.

Another of her wedding dresses includes a skirt from an older one, a bodice from another and a bow from one more.

Seher said sparkle and sleeves are popular, while designs that are too busy are out.

“As clean and simple as you can get,” she said.

Seher is most excited about what the Seventh Heaven fashion show that starts at 6:30 p.m. could mean for her proteges.

"It’s a very competitive market,” Seher said.

Deuel believes she’s ready.

“I love being able to think, ‘I can make that myself,’” she said.

Other in-house designers participating in the show include Grace Johnson, Jolette Megis and Chanel Grutta.

Each fashion designer will receive a commission from their dress sales. But more important, said Seher, their sense of fashion will be in the spotlight.

“I want a bride to come in here and know she can have a complete custom dress that nobody else has, that’s created by my girls right here,” Seher said. 

    Michaela Coy models one of the wedding dresses that will be featured in Cloud Nine Bridal's Seventh Heaven fashion show on Saturday.
  

    Josie Deuel models a wedding dress created by Anne Kuypers for the Seventh Heaven fashion show on Saturday.