THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 17, 1995 TAG: 9508170047
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HOLLY WESTER, CAMPUSCORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
WHEN DEE DEE SIDES shops the local malls, she's not looking for trendy T's, designer dresses or skimpy skirts.
She's shopping for ideas.
Sides, a fashion designer and spring graduate of Virginia Beach's First Colonial High School, will show what she's done with those ideas Friday night when her first-ever fashion show hits the runway at Visions Gallery at Pembroke Mall.
Strobe lights, a smoke machine and music tailored to each outfit is the plan for Sides' 20 or so girlfriends, who will strut their size 3 stuff in everything from faux fur halter tops to clear plastic minis to drippy slip dresses. Spray-painted platforms, bold make-up and big hair will add to the shock of the impromptu show.
``It's not going to be a traditional fashion show at all,'' Sides said.
Although all the clothes shown will be originals, Sides admits that she's not even sure she knows what she's doing.
Sides' design interest dates back to when she was 12 and experimenting with a striped clown costume, glue and a friend's pair of stone-washed Guess jean shorts. Because she and the friend thought the stripes and red fringe would look cool on the back of the shorts, and neither knew how to sew, they cut and pasted it.
``Then it just kind of evolved,'' Sides said.
Puff-painting daisies on jean shorts became her thing, until she adopted alterations by hand. In high school, she bought a used sewing machine.
``There has been a lot of trial and error,'' Sides said. ``I've messed up a lot of stuff.''
Soon, alterations weren't enough. She wanted to create.
Sides sketched designs on paper, traced her own patterns and made her visions come to life.
``I would go shopping and see things that I really, really wanted, but I knew I could make the outfits for a third of the price,'' she said.
So she did. She picked up flea market threads and modernized them to make formal dresses. She turned a set of tacky curtains she found at a garage sale into three sexy outfits, just by shredding the ends to make fringe.
When she went to New York's garment district this past spring, a clerk practically gave her a spool of seafoam-colored fake fur to sculpt. She has even used men's suit liner to make a short satin wrap skirt.
``If it's ugly and it has potential, I'll buy it,'' she said.
Most of the designing and sewing goes on in Sides' studio - her upstairs bedroom in the family's Croatan Beach home. Occasionally she'll take some pieces to a seamstress friend for help. In the meantime, she is getting plenty of sewing practice on her brand new Simplicity machine.
All of this design dabbling hasn't gone unnoticed. While most of her pieces have some kind of edge - whether it's street, Oriental or straight-up hoochie - Sides has had some mainstream luck.
When baby tees started popping up, Sides designed her own version, using zigzag stitching on the neck and sleeves and silk-screened hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs as centerpieces. Last summer, she sold them at The Bahama Shop and The Factory.
``At The Factory, all five sold on the first day,'' she said. Since then, she's sold some sequined tops at Fly.
Although she's enrolled in the architectural engineering department at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Sides hopes she can mass produce some of her designs soon.
``I know what people my age want, and I know what people around here want,'' she said. ``I want to get my name out. I think that there's a future in the fashion business for me.'' MEMO: Holly Wester is a rising junior at Virginia Wesleyan College.Holly
Wester is a rising junior at Virginia Wesleyan College.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/Staff
Dee Dee Sides, a spring graduate of First Colonial High, says, ``If
it's ugly and it has potential, I'll buy it.''
Graphic
THE SHOWS
Designer Dee Dee Sides will display one-of-a-kind designs from her
collection, D2, Friday night at Visions Gallery in Pembroke Mall.
There will be two half-hour shows, one at 6 and the other at 8.
by CNB