Good News For
FASHION’S FUTURE
ENCOURAGED TO SHARE THEIR WORK, TWO TALENTED YOUNG DESIGNERS AT BROOKDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE ACHIEVE HONORS—AND MOMENTUM. Back in September, Newark Fashion Week held its Emerging Designers Youth Festival, which provides a platform for young designers to show off their talent and creations. Two students at Lincroft’s Brookdale Community College, 24-year-old Lauren Louis of Neptune and 20-year-old Catherine St. Germaine of Freehold, did just that—with awardwinning results. Louis was the first-place winner, while St. Germaine placed second. Both women are part of Brookdale’s Fashion Design & Merchandising program, and both credit BCC professor Sheridan O’Hea—who herself recently showcased a collection at the prestigious Paris Fashion Week—for pushing them to submit their work to the show. “I’m so inspired by her,” says Louis. “She’s very active in the fashion world.” St. Germaine says O’Hea “really got the wheel going” with both young designers, setting the pair on a path toward the runway, guiding them on their way there and introducing them to key industry contacts. After what they both describe as an “intense” creation experience, which included many sleepless nights spent perfecting their work, each designer presented the judges with a full collection of clothing. Each one’s work had a core theme and vision, embodying something important or inspirational to its creator. Louis’s collection was inspired by fantasy and fairy tales and influenced by streetwear. “Streetwear speaks to me,” she says. “I love that you can do anything
with it; I love the influences of hip-hop; I love how personal you can make it. It’s inspiring. I also wanted to tap into storybook characters. I thought, ‘OK, how can I make them look modern and cool?’” On the runway, she reimagined Little Red Riding Hood as something preppy, with distressed touches for drama. St. Germaine, meanwhile, used her collection to explore darker themes of anxiety and navigating a world filled with misogyny— particularly, she says, in the years after the repeal of Roe v. Wade. She explains: “It was the first collection I ever showcased, so I wanted to make it reflect my values. I was thinking a lot of the mutual, uniting things the women in my life were feeling. I tried to communicate that through the all-black color palette.” St. Germaine also kept a sustainable ethic at the heart of her project. “I sourced fabrics from thrift stores and Fab Scrap in Brooklyn, so my designs were environmentally conscious as well,” she says. The two young designers didn’t go into the competition alone. Fellow Brookdale students Nicole Fancera and Sara Monacelli assisted, helping both Louis and St. Germaine with fittings and last-minute alterations—and helping them
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navigate the backstage chaos. Louis recalls the experience as an all-day whirlwind and says she kept anchored by “locking in with her girls” to get every garment ready. St. Germaine remembers a moment right as the models were lining up, when she caught sight of her mother in the audience through the reflection in a glass door. “I was nervous,” she says. “But I was proud to present to her something I worked so hard on.” The momentum from that day still hasn’t left either of these talented creators. St. Germaine speaks of the importance of having this kind of show on one’s résumé as a young designer, and eagerly looks forward to Brookdale’s own fashion show in May. (Its “Eras of Art” theme will bring together fashion with fine art, her other great love.) Louis will serve as model captain at the next Newark Fashion Week this spring and also had a chance to showcase her designs at New York Fashion Week in February with Fashion Republic magazine. That opportunity came as a direct result of her win. “Someone reached out to me on Instagram after Newark Fashion Week,” she confides. “She said they were including young, starting designers, and they would love to see my collection in their show. I’m excited—and grateful.”
MARCH 2025
2/21/25 12:04 PM