A NIGHT AT BROOKLYN'S OWN

PROJECT RUNWAY

By Irina Chernova

"If our fashion show had been established earlier, we could have had Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs put their first designs on our models," proudly noted Julia Tyumentseva, the production manager of the Brooklyn College fashion show, an annual event that has been around for 11 years and that gathers together 11 young designers, 30 models and performers.

This year's show, held on March 9, attracted an enthusiastic audience interested in fashion for both aesthetic reasons and a good cause as all profits of the evening went to a charity in Israel that helps children suffering from cancer.

"Project Runway" and other TV shows about the fashion world demonstrate very vividly how challenging it is for a young designer without a big budget and lack of established connections to break into the business and to get noticed.

"Young designers usually do two or three fashion shows a week for different fundraisers without getting paid," Tyumentseva said. However, even huge stars in the fashion business had to start their careers somewhere.

As a playbill of the show noted, many big-name designers came from neighborhoods in the city -- Donna Karan from Forest Hills, Queens, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein from the Bronx and Kenneth Cole from Brooklyn.

Jeanine Fajardo, one of the designers in the Brooklyn College show who currently is studying to be a lingerie designer at the Fashion Institute of Technology, modestly described herself as "a student who has worked as an intern and has not yet had a full time position in the industry." She was happy to be part of the event even though it was a lot of hard work.

"The fashion industry is not always as glamorous for most as TV might sometimes portray it and to become a successful designer one must be a very strong, passionate individual who doesn't take criticisms to heart and believes in himself," Fajardo said.

"Being a designer is an amazing profession, but, as everyone can see on the shows like Project Runway, the designers work incredibly hard and end up dealing with a great amount of criticism," continued Fajardo. "If you as a designer, especially a young one, create something that your company's merchandising team does nor approve, it will most likely not get into the line for production."

The designers whose collections were presented at the show, all very young individuals who just started their careers, saw the show as a training ground and a profile for their resumes. "Depending on the specific area of design it is very difficult to get noticed because of a great amount of competition, so participating in fashion shows, even for free, and exposing your designs as much as possible helps," Fajardo said.

"It is crucial to see your work come to life on the runway. It was also a great motivation to know that all of the proceeds went to an amazing charitable cause," she enthusiastically noted.

Although there were no universally famous designers at the show, some have achieved some success on the local level. Igor Rozenbaum of the Rozenbaum Couture, who is well known among stylish young Brooklynites, had started his own Web site with the photos of his collections. His clothes sell for $50 to $400.

Certainly not only the designers contributed to the excitement of the show. The event also gathered together models who weren't professional catwalkers but rather good-looking young women and men found through friends, on MySpace, or through ads distributed at Brooklyn College. Models had a lot of time to perfect their performance. Preparations for the show started as early as September, so by the time of the actual event all the models had mastered choreography and sexy moves.

Since the show was a charitable event, models were motivated by other reasons to participate rather than being paid. First, of course, it was a desire to give to a noble cause. Another motivation for the models was to boost their self-confidence. Tyumentseva shared her own experience remembering how frightened, shy, and nervous she was during her first catwalk a few years ago. "However, the show and applauds of the audience really make you feel more beautiful, more fulfilled," she said.

Another motivation for the models was a romantic one. "The whole process of the preparations took several months and everybody definitely grew closer to each other. There are even love stories that came out from the long rehearsal hours," said Tyumentseva with a smile.

The last but not least driving force that brought the models into the show was an adrenaline rush that is known to everyone who had been on the stage in front of the audience at least once. "You come out on the stage once, and after that you want more and more," Tyumentseva noted.

Besides of the catwalks the show included performances by comedians and dancers that turned an event into a wholesome experience. Surprisingly enough, the entire show was organized by only five people -- Tyumentseva, Ella Pliss, Yanna Begelman, Alina Vernikova and Marina Teremets. Tyumentseva said that the most difficult part in organizing the event was to gather everybody together. "That was such a headache because everybody had different schedules."

"However, the sense of accomplishment after the show, the moment when everybody is applauding you at the final scene, and the realization that you actually pulled it together are so overwhelming that all difficulties and problems are forgotten right away," she said