{"id":2300971,"date":"2026-02-26T10:45:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T10:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2300971"},"modified":"2026-02-26T10:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T10:45:24","slug":"philly-fashion-week-opens-doors-for-homegrown-designers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/philly-fashion-week-opens-doors-for-homegrown-designers\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly Fashion Week opens doors for homegrown designers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Opening doors for designers<\/h2>\n

Susie Buttons, the designer behind Buttons, a retro-maximalist womenswear brand inspired by fantasy and fairy tales, has shown her designs all over the world, including New York and London.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Philly Fashion Week is the best,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody involved loves what they do and they are just so helpful and kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susie Buttons, designer behind Buttons, with her collection inspired by \u201dAlice in Wonderland\u201d (Rana Rastegari\/WHYY)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

This year, her collection was inspired by \u201cAlice in Wonderland,\u201d with a hint of old Hollywood glamour. As an experienced costume designer and technician, she is used to creating within a set of rules, but designing her own collections to display at Philly Fashion Week offered her more freedom.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIn costume design and production, \u2026 you\u2019re confined by a script, time period or what the director wants. This is more whatever I want to do,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

Despite being a relatively small, regional event, Philly Fashion Week has opened doors for designers to showcase their work in New York and London and on \u201cProject Runway.\u201d Designers Kristina Kharlashkina and Prajj\u00e9 Oscar returned to the runway in Philly to show their new collections, after appearing on the renowned reality competition show\u2019s 19th season. For both of them, Philly Fashion Week represents a different direction for the industry.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always nice to get out of New York and see different countries or cities or cultures. Philly Fashion Week is a very strong community, and they really support each other,\u201d Kharlashkina said. \u201cIn New York, you\u2019re like a fish out of water, and here, I feel a really [deep] connection between people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"five
Couture collection by Kristina Kharlashkina, featuring floral motifs and a resin body piece (Rana Rastegari\/WHYY)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Oscar\u2019s continuous return to Philly Fashion Week is a sensation for many attendees.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI see the opportunity it gives to the other designers, and I\u2019m glad that I\u2019m able to contribute to that,\u201d Oscar said.\n<\/p>\n

Jennifer Lynn Robinson and Nina Cueva-Castillo, both influencers who attended Philly Fashion Week, have followed Oscar\u2019s career closely. \u201cI was a total fangirl when he was on \u201cProject Runway,\u201d and now I can call him a personal friend,\u201d Cueva-Castillo said.<\/p>\n

\"Prajj\u00e9
Prajj\u00e9 Oscar and the closing look of his collection (Rana Rastegari\/WHYY)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Community support seems to be the foundation for Philly Fashion Week\u2019s 20 years of operation. Scott and Parker have essentially founded a hub for designers, models, stylists and producers to gain access to the often-shielded fashion industry without financial sacrifice. Attendees are able to interact closely with designers, requesting custom pieces and buying their newest collections from Maison, a storefront Scott and Parker launched in the Fashion District. Having access to Maison alleviates the financial burden of purchasing stores and showrooms, especially for emerging designers.\n<\/p>\n

Steve Akins, of Paragon Charisma, handcrafts each of his designs. For many designers, the costs of fabric, studio spaces and mannequins are a severe limitation. But as Akins notes, at Philly Fashion Week, \u201cThey give everybody every opportunity. They tell us about every chance for grants, for fashion shows, to get us into stores, to get us on celebrity placements. It\u2019s so rich. It\u2019s so valuable to have them.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Beyond opening opportunities for designers, Philly Fashion Week is a chance for creatives and artists to get involved in the industry. Taking on interns and volunteers every season, the event offers access to first-hand experience. For J\u2019lyn E. Martin, a stylist and the show\u2019s producer, Philly Fashion Week created a learning environment where he could work his way up the ranks.<\/p>\n

\"J\u2019lyn
J\u2019lyn E. Martin takes a bow at the culmination of February\u2019s Philly Fashion Week. (Rana Rastegari\/WHYY)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI started as a volunteer. There was a lot to do and each season, I ended up doing more and more. I was [also able to] put my creative ideas and background into what we\u2019re presenting in Philly,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThere are people that want to be stylists or producers and they don\u2019t have a foot in the door. I put my toe in there and they pulled my whole foot, leg and arm in, and now I\u2019m producing the shows.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source whyy.org \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening doors for designers Susie Buttons, the designer behind Buttons, a retro-maximalist womenswear brand inspired by fantasy and fairy tales, has shown her designs all over the world, including New York and London. \u201cBut Philly Fashion Week is the best,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody involved loves what they do and they are just so helpful and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2300972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[22767],"class_list":["post-2300971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-fashion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Philly-Fashion-Week-opens-doors-for-homegrown-designers-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2300971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2300973,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300971\/revisions\/2300973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2300972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2300971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2300971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2300971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}