Local designer showcase Couve Couture returns

Paris, London, Milan, New York … the Couve?

Local fans of fashion can rejoice at the revival of Couve Couture, Vancouver’s flashy show that puts a spotlight on Southwest Washington fashion designers.

After two years of dormancy, organizers are breathing life into the runway again — this time at the Vancouver Barracks on the Fort Vancouver National Site, and spanning two days instead of one.

“It’s a great visual experience. If for anything, just to be in the midst of the runway music, the lights coming down and the fashion coming down the runway,” said event founder and designer in this year’s show, Alisa Tetreault. “It’s a really cool experience.”

What’s new?

Six designers — including Tetreault and co-founder Brett Allred — will showcase their creations on 28 models twice on April 13, in a new feature adding a matinee show and evening show at the Artillery Barracks, 600 E. Hatheway Road. On the second day, designers and other fashion-oriented artisans will show off their creations at a Fashion Marketplace at the Red Cross Building, 605 Barnes Road, in a new partnership with Night Market Vancouver.

“Knowing that we do have limitations, this is the first year that we’re doing a matinee and an evening show, which actually allows us to have 380 attendees per show giving us a total of 760,” said Tetreault, who also owns the small boutique shop called Most Everything Vintage, 815 Washington St.

The show has seen a different location each time since its debut in 2012, mainly because of the challenge of finding a venue. Fashion shows are unique in their layout, and organizers said they didn’t have a lot of money to fork over to book something like a ballroom at the Hilton Vancouver Washington, which Tetreault said quoted her an “exorbitant” price. Instead, they hooked up with The Historic Trust, the organization that manages city-owned historic properties on Officers Row and the Vancouver Barracks.

The venue cost about $3,000 for the booking, but Tetreault said the Trust became a sponsor, subsidizing some of the costs by supplying the room that the models will get around in.

Organizers said one of their biggest challenges was finding an ideal location with a “vibey downtown unique feel” to fit the number of attendees they want to attract, which is one reason why they took a hiatus after 2015 to regroup. It also gave Tetreault and Allred the opportunity to focus on their businesses. Allred owns Beigeblonde Salon, 909 Main St., just a short walk away from the vintage shop.

“We love it, we’re willing to sacrifice our businesses. And as we plan the show, we see our numbers go down because our focus is on the show and not on our shops. We have to plan ahead for that. Sometimes it’s like, ‘Can I take this?’ ” said Tetreault.

In 2016, they held a trunk show in lieu of a full-on fashion show production.

Wrangling in the Night Market Vancouver — a relatively new addition to the city — helped them organize the second-day marketplace that will give designers the opportunity to better connect with the public. 

“In years past, we tried to do trunk shows. We did it at the Red Lion and we did it at The Academy. What happens is after the show you end up with this huge mob that comes to the tables,” Tetreault said. “There’s just no way you can connect and talk to all the people. And really, the designers are just exhausted, they’re trying to get all their clothes off of models and onto hangers and it becomes a really big challenge.”

Models and more

The new setup excites local designer Kate Beeman, 41, of Hazel Dell, who has her own clothing label called Origin Design.

“I’m excited about that, because it’s really hard to make a pop-up shop right at the end of the runway. It’s kind of a mad frenzy,” Beeman said in a phone interview. “I’m excited about taking the whole next day to do a shop. There’s a couple pieces I’m going to modify after the runway because a few of my girls are really tall.”

Couve Couture holds auditions for the small band of designers in the fall, and holds auditions for models in January. The next round would be for new designers in the fall, then auditions for models in January 2020, Tetreault said.

Unlike the “big four” cities of fashion, the Couve takes a slightly different approach to model selection.

“If you go to Los Angeles or New York, the base size for designing is about a (pant size) 0-2. We opted to go larger to a size 28-inch waist, which is traditionally a size 8” and a height of 5 feet 8 inches.

“A lot of it is dependent on the designer; if (they are) designing for plus sizes or for petites. So if you come the following day to the fashion marketplace, you get to meet them,” Tetreault said, adding that designers won’t use a pattern to create, and can work with different body types. “So if someone who is larger comes in and they’re like, ‘I love that dress,’ they could make it in a different size.”

“I try to design kind of so that almost every person can wear what I’m designing,” said Beeman. “There’s an element of fashion that is definitely pretentious. I try to break that mentality.”

Beeman specializes in creating clothes that drape, so that even if a runway model is a size 2, someone larger could still buy the piece and still fit into it. This helps her sell more pieces and continue working as an artist. Beeman actually quit fashion design until she was encouraged to rejoin Couve Couture, which she had participated in years past.

“I quit because it’s a lot of money when you’re poor to continually buy fabric,” she said. “The clothes just kind of move. I want the clothes to move with the person’s body and drape in a way that kind of accentuates what they have. I just want to make women feel beautiful.”

Other designers have their own approaches, and include everyone from 14-year-old Kian Mirfathali, a student at Mountain View High School, to 67-year-old Shelley Beauchaine, and Carlie Bailes, who is making a line inspired by Iceland and the Vikings who settled there.

Allred, for his part, will be designing hats.

“Talk to me about my hats,” he said, in the middle of completing a color job on a client while working at his salon. “They’re pretty elaborate art pieces. They’re articulate. They flow. They’re jaunty. I’ve actually had some really well-known drag performers buy my hats because they’re a little avant garde and extraordinary.”

Allred has been excited about the growth of Couve Couture. He was inspired to help start the adventure by his friend Seth Aaron Henderson, who lives near him in the Felida neighborhood, Allred said. Henderson was 2010’s Season 7 winner of “Project Runway,” the popular fashion design show that airs on the Bravo network. He also won Season 3 of “Project Runway All Stars.”

“There’s so much more room for growth, whether that’s expanding the show into multiple days and styles, whether it’s plus size, petites, athleisure, whatever it might be,” Tetreault said.

“Multiple days?” Allred chimed in. “What if we did a fashion week?”