Photo by Eric Nemens, courtesy of Brainchild Events
Marcel Coleman Jr. with his model at last year's Pins & Needles competition
At the ninth annual Pins & Needles fashion design competition, hosted by Brainchild Events, one St. Louis designer will take the stage for the second time.
The event will take place this Thursday, August 10, and Marcel Coleman Jr. is one of the six emerging designers—and the only one from the Gateway City—that will show their collections this year. Previous participants have gone on to participate in Project Runway, America’s Next Top Model, and New York Fashion Week. This year’s winner will receive $15,000 in prizes, including $1,000 from the Saint Louis Fashion Fund. Saint Louis Fashion Incubator designer Charles Smith II will open the show.
Coleman participated in the contest last year, and he says he wasn't considering re-entering this year. Instead, he was promoting the contest and encouraging friends to join. Then Brainchild Events reached out and asked him to participate again.
“I really liked the opportunity," Coleman says of his 2016 involvement. "The people I met were so awesome. It is such a different demographic of people, because I feel like St. Louis is still kind of separated at times. I like to be a part of different things that friends of mine aren’t—to branch out."
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Photo by Dom Shepherd, courtesy of Marcel Coleman Jr.
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Photo by Dom Shepherd, courtesy of Marcel Coleman Jr.
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Photo by Dom Shepherd, courtesy of Marcel Coleman Jr.
He adds, “The fashion community here is really growing. I grew in my fashion artistry in other cities. When I came back here, that’s when I entered [Pins & Needles], because I was looking for other ways to be a part of the fashion industry here.”
Coleman says that if he won the prize money, he would contribute some of it back into his friends' projects, as well as his own, to support everyone’s creative growth.
“Growing up, I did not have a lot of money to buy the clothes that I wanted,” Coleman says, explaining how he became interested in creating his own clothes. While studying fashion design in college, he became excited when he learned how to create his own prints. This allowed him to create looks that were different from everyone else’s designs.
Each designer will show 8–10 looks during the competition. When asked how he would describe his style, Coleman responds by defining the person who would wear his clothes as “very open, very honest, very accepting of a lot of things, very risk taking, very natural, very organic, and very loose. The whole collection is based on love.”
Pins & Needles takes place Thursday, August 10 at Majorette (7150 Manchester) from 6–9 p.m. Tickets are $30–45 and available online.
