Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Shan Keith greets me with a broad smile at the door of his white two-story Colonial home in Frontenac. He introduces his dog, Marble, and leads me downstairs toward the finished basement where, across from his children’s playroom, the fashion designer goes to work at SK Studios.
“People don’t expect to see what they’re about to see,” he says, “but in here, it starts to feel real.”
Here is a basement with the feel of a downtown loft, where Keith has plastered brick wallpaper on the cement foundation, where mirrors are propped against a wall in a casually elegant manner, and photographs of black fashion designers—including Ann Lowe, best remembered for designing the dress worn by Jacqueline Kennedy on her wedding day—serve as inspiration to him. Two dressing rooms anchor the studio, and mannequins—dressed in Keith’s formal dresses—stand in stylish poses. The bright-pink suit is a sample for clients to view and try on. Other garments, such as the floor-length gown with mesh fabric, a bevy of embellishments, and feathers sewn into the hem, are ready for a fitting…and the client’s feedback.
It’s all part of being a designer, and Keith is no stranger to the pressures of the fashion world. During his season on Project Runway, in 2014, he was challenged to design a five-look collection in three days, then present it in front of a live audience to judges, among them supermodel Heidi Klum and actor Neil Patrick Harris. But since returning to St. Louis five years ago and starting a job teaching in North Technical High School’s fashion design program, he’s found himself tasked with a project that, to some, has higher stakes: prom night.
“I block out January through May for prom season, because I know those [months] are going to be really steady and time-consuming,” he says. He started out designing two or three dresses a prom season, but now, thanks to the hallway grapevine and the power of Instagram, the number is closer to 50.
Some of those clients are students where he teaches. And as a result of his course offerings in such fields as merchandising and retail, design and sewing, Keith’s learning that being a teacher entails more than he expected. Often he finds himself serving as counselor, father figure, and friend. He calls each of his students “boss” and encourages them all to think like one: “You can be great! You have the potential to be a boss.”
The lessons he’s teaching are those he’s learned in his own career, which has included providing garments for such celebrities as the actress and singer Zendaya, designing wedding dresses, and creating those Hollywood-worthy prom designs.
It’s in his studio space where he balances it all—the business and his family.
“I feel most comfortable here,” says Keith. “My kids can come in and ask me questions. I can be myself. You know how every man says he has a man cave? This is mine.”
