As Fashion Week kicks off in New York, fashionistas are holding their breaths for the latest styles and what will happen next on the runway. One fashion designer chose a different location for their show and had a packed crowd at the venue.
Novice artist/fashion designer, Amanda Mehl, chose to feature her collection in a unique space for her venue, the oldest hardware store in New York city. The Garber Hardware store in the West Village hosted Mehl’s unique runway show featuring a rather big show of 55 models.
Mehl reflects on her design process saying, “it’s artistic fashion because fashion in America is so commercial, to me that’s a whole other breed.” She chose to feature her collection in the hardware store since most of the materials for her designs were sourced from a hardware store.
She uses a combination of items for her pieces including embellishments with clothes pins, chains, wiring, and more. Mehl’s collection is more like wearable pieces of art with a street wear aesthetic that she incorporates her in her designs.
As for the audience of this show, it’s a far cry from the traditional runway experience. Many guests stood along the sidelines of the makeshift runway through the hardware store and their front row used industrial buckets for seats, talk about catwalk DIY.
The Garber Hardware store has a long history of being in business for 135 years. Nathaniel Garber now runs the store that his family kept alive for more than 100 years and agreed to have the show for no cost to support the arts.
Melh makes it a point to host her fashion shows in peculiar venues, showing one of her previous collections in a traditional school bus. Another one of her runway shows was a parade with a marching band through the streets of downtown Manhattan and recently featured a runway show in a floral shop.
This designer goes to show that art is married to fashion and that you can host a runway show virtually anywhere. To see more of Amanda Mehl’s designs, check out the video above.
