It's Fashion Week, dahling! Here're a few designers to watch

To say Sharan Nixon is statuesque might be an understatement. At 6' flat footed, she has proportions that most women would kill for; proportions that propelled her into a career as a model, and an eventual ushering of Bmore into the national fashion scene with Baltimore's Fashion Week (BFW).

"The glamour, the beauty. I just wanted that in my life," Nixon says. "[And] I met designers who really deserved to have a professional venue -- an opportunity for their work to be seen. I built Fashion Week to give them that exposure. People need to recognize that Baltimore is more than just The Wire."

Baltimore's Fashion Week: "Re-Inventing the Impossible," runs August 19 to 22 at the Sheraton Baltimore North in Towson. The show's proximity to Towson Town Center was at least a partial enticement for the retail giant to sign on for title sponsorship of BFW in May. They will underwrite a portion of the entire week's events. Doors open at 6 p.m., with all events beginning at 7 p.m.

Now in its third year, the event boasts no fewer than 31 designers. Most are first-time exhibitors, and most, by a review of their soon-to-be-released work, are on the edge of notoriety.

Most are also local, though some have traveled from Ohio, New Jersey, New York and as far away as Africa. Yes, Africa. It seems the "local" fashion scene just got a bit more global.

Sia Ngegba

Originally from war-ravaged Sierra Leone, Africa, Sia Ngegba now works on her Siasylmons Fashion Designs line in Columbia, Maryland. A first-time BFW exhibitor, her aesthetic is unquestionably influenced by her cultural background, with a heavy emphasis on African prints and natural elements. "African fabric has beautiful colors, and it blends with everything. However you work with it, it always fits in," she says.

Ngegba's story isn't that of your typical up-and-coming designer, however. In 1992, she lost her parents and youngest sister to rebels in West Africa. She then lost her voice after a botched tracheotomy. It wasn't until 2005, two days before she was slated to have major throat surgery at Johns Hopkins, that she suddenly � and, as Sia recounts it, miraculously � regained her ability to speak.

"I had told myself, 'I'm not going to just sit back and let this disability sink me.' I was on my way to law school before I left Africa, but had always had my eye on fashion. So I told myself that I would go ahead and do what I have the passion to do," she recalls.

Once in Baltimore, a place that Sia describes as "full of many cultures and from which many good things come," she made the decision to "do something great with the miracle I'd been given."

The exuberance of her attitude is evident in the riotous collection of colors she employs in her eye-catching designs, from turquoise and yellow, to royal blue and lipstick red.

Ngegba's collection will be showcased Saturday, August 21.

Stephanie Michele

Stephanie Michele of Olive Design is one of those working girls who holds down one job to pay for another. Like most first-time Baltimore Fashion Week exhibitors, her love affair with fashion is longstanding. Stephanie's friend Ilene Mitchell exhibited last year and that, combined with urging from her similarly artistic family, gave her the push she needed to start a collection.

What Michele finds most energizing about BFW is the fact that it gives her a "project"; something she comes home to at night that motivates her continued creations. And she loves what it offers to designers like her: a chance to network, media coverage and exposure for emerging lines. "We're not New York, and that's okay. It just means we have to work a little harder to find people who are like-minded." 

Michele is a 2006 graduate of the fashion design program at Marymount University. She's also a designer with a plan: in five years, she'd love own a boutique � "somewhere I can go to work doing what I love. I'd never say no to a national line, but based on my life, I'd love to keep it local � something a little more low-key." 

Creating the designs was entirely organic, "emerging as it went along." Rather than attempting to design around a theme, Stephanie played with fabric, color and draping, willing to let the clothes ultimately design themselves. In the end, her line displays a propensity for three-dimensional flowers, which, considering John Galliano's recent garden-inspired couture line for Dior, stands her in pretty solid sartorial stead.

She's already got ideas for next year's line, which she describes as "even more impressive" than what she's rolling out this year.

Olive Designs makes its entrance on Sunday, August 22.

Wendy Kaufman

It's not often that a designer's work and their trade name are evocative of the same imagery. Wendy Kaufman doesn't have that problem. In fact, her Banshee creations call to mind visions of the wailing fairy specters of Irish folklore � exactly what Wendy had envisioned while creating her BFW collection.

"The inspiration was very fanciful. While designing, I thought of William Butler Yeats and Maude Gonne, and of the trip my husband and I took to Ireland, which is a very special place for us" (though one wonders how her Scottish relatives feel about this).

Though she took some time off from her custom creations after the birth of her twins and a stint in graphic design, Kaufman's been designing clothing for private clients on and off since receiving her design degree in 1985 from the University of Maryland at College Park.

"I always keep coming back [to fashion]. I can't let it go. And now with Fashion Week, I'm back in with a big bang. I loved meeting everyone, and I kept thinking, 'Where have you all been?' I love how [BFW] helps the models, I love how they're donating clothing. So much of it is kind. You don't find too much kindness in fashion."

Her ultimate plan? Getting Banshee into a boutique. "I'm not sure a line like mine would do well in a department store. It's pretty artsy. I plan on researching boutiques and showing my line to smaller shops as soon as Fashion Week is over."

Kaufman's collection debuts on Sunday, August 22.

John Tillery

John Tillery is a completely self-taught designer. Though you'd never know that by looking at his Un*touched Diamonds line.

In June of 2009, a mere two years after graduating from Woodlawn High, Tillery debuted his first 45-piece collection. This, after his seamstresses backed out and he was forced to create everything on his own while learning to use a sewing machine.

While he's dabbled in other forms of art, it was fashion that raised eyebrows as he snuck sketching time during lectures. Tillery's planning on starting formal design classes in January 2011, but before he goes, he'll hosts his own fashion show in October.

Tillery describes his current collection as "vintage with a modern touch." Featured colors include silver, black, purple and his designs don't lack for feathers. Much of what he created was inspired by Alexander McQueen, who, says Tillery, "was a master at using feminine, delicate fabrics, but making them look industrial."

Like McQueen, Tillery loves drama. That could explain the enormous train on his stunning, black finale dress. 

BFW has surprised Tillery, but only a little. "Seeing the different talents � I'm amazed at the passion for this industry that other people in Baltimore have. And it's been wonderful working with Sharan. She had a vision, and she's taking us all along for the ride."

Un*Touched Diamonds will make its appearance on Sunday, August 22^nd.

Sarah Perry is an eleven-year native of the Baltimore area and has been writing for about that long. Her work has appeared in publications across the country. She's also a lawyer, but don't hold that against her.

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Photos by Arianne Teeple:
1.  Fashion designer John W. Tillery III
2.  Designs by fashion designer John W. Tillery III
3.  Fashion designer John W. Tillery III, works in his studio
4.  Designs by fashion designer John W. Tillery III
5.  Fashion Designer John W. Tillery III
6.  Fashion designer Wendy Kaufman
7.  Head pieces designed by Wendy Kaufman
8.  Fashion designer Wendy Kaufman works in her studio
9.  Fashion designer Wendy Kaufman works in her studio
10. Fashion by designer Wendy Kaufman