Designers - Westword

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20 // CITY HALL // 1144 BROADWAY
Designers
Designers
2016 Westword Artopia
About the event............................... Page 1
Westword MasterMind Award......... Page 2-3
Steven Trujillo/Leon Designs.......... Page 4
AJ Machete/Denver Bespoke......... Page 5
Deb Henriksen/Equillibrium............ Page 6
Gino Velardi/ Gino Velardi............... Page 7
Mona Lucero/ Mona Lucero............ Page 8
Gabriel Medina/YOCISCO................ Page 9
Elyse Rainbolt/Elyse........................ Page 10
Anne Fanganello/AnnaFesta............ Page 11
Deedee Vicory/D’Lola Couture........ Page 12
Whiteout Style Team........................ Page 13
Sponsors......................................... Page 14
Join us on
Saturday, February 20, for Artopia 2016, a night of art, culture and fashion at City Hall.
Enjoy cocktails, too, as you move through multiple spaces of art installations and exhibits
curated by Jolt from Guerilla Garden, showcasing Denver’s most exciting artists as well as
some stars on the national scene.
Whiteout, the Westword fashion show, will also return to Artopia, featuring nine local
designers and their interpretation of “The Art of Fashion.” Watch as Wilhelmina models strut
down the runway in AnnaFesta, D’Lola Couture, Denver Bespoke, Elyse, Equillibrium, Gino
Velardi, Leon Designs, Mona Lucero and YOCISCO. For the first time, Whiteout will feature a
curve line and a men’s underwear line.
Westword Artopia
Saturday, February 20, 2016 // 5:30 p.m.-midnight
City Hall (1144 Broadway) Denver, CO 80203
Happy Hour // $40
Come at 5:30 p.m. for a special reception featuring food samples from participating restaurants
and a chance to preview the art, then stay for all the fashion and fun of Artopia itself as a
general admission ticket-holder.
GA // $35
Come at 7 p.m. for all the art, fashion and entertainment of Artopia, which runs until midnight.
VIP // $95
Come at 7 p.m. for a special reception featuring food from Troy Guard restaurants, an open bar and
a gift bag; enjoy special runway seating during the Whiteout fashion show
(limited to VIP only).
Meet the MasterMinds
In the early 2000s, Denver was all about the creative class. Author/big thinker Richard Florida had labeled the metro
area one of the top creative spots in the country, an honor that John Hickenlooper used to promote the city that had just
elected him mayor. Fifteen years before, he’d been one of those entrepreneurial adventurers — an unemployed geologist
who joined with other visionaries to found the town’s first brewpub, the Wynkoop Brewing Co., still going strong 25 years
later. And Hickenlooper, too, is still going strong: Today he has a starring role as governor of Colorado.
But we didn’t need Florida’s seal of approval, or Hickenlooper’s unusual career path, to know that Colorado is full of
creativity. For generations, the Front Range has drawn artists and other aesthetic explorers, people who want to make
their mark on the landscape — people every bit as daring as would-be brewmasters or new politicians, but rarely as
high-profile. Or highly compensated.
In honor of the groundbreaking, often underappreciated and almost always underpaid work that so many of these
artists were doing, a decade ago Westword created the MasterMind awards, a grant program that every year gives five
no-strings-attached awards to arts organizations and individuals in the fields of literary arts, performance, multimedia,
visual arts and fashion/design. We inducted our first class in 2005 and will name our twelfth class in 2016.
When we named Buntport to that original class of MasterMinds, it was a fledgling theater troupe of Colorado College
grads; today it’s one of the biggest draws in the city, a theatrical institution with a national reputation that continues to
do cutting-edge work. Other early honorees, including the Denver Zine Library, have had a tougher time over the past
decade; now under the guidance of Kelly Shortandqueer, the library recently moved to a new home where it opened a
fresh chapter. And individuals like Brandi Shigley (our first fashion honoree) continue to impress us not only with the
scope of their own art, but with their support of other artists despite the challenges of keeping an artistic enterprise
alive. And while some award-winners have left town, a surprising number of MasterMinds have stayed in this city, where
today they are integral members of the increasingly lively arts scene. And they also contribute to the increasingly lively
process of choosing the next class of MasterMinds.
Our MasterMind winners take the title seriously; at the same time they push the envelope with their own art, they’re
always scouting new talent. And so every year, the MasterMind nominations list is a guide to the breathtaking scope and
sweep of cultural activity in this area. While narrowing that group down to the five who will each get a $2,000 grant is
one of the hardest things we do all year, making the calls to the new class of MasterMinds to let them know they’ve won
is definitely the easiest. And the most satisfying.
With the announcement of the 2015 class of MasterMinds, we have now honored over fifty artists and arts organizations
since 2005, giving grants totaling well over $150,000. At a time when grants for individual artists are increasingly rare,
the MasterMind program itself has won awards, including a prestigious prize from the Colorado Business Committee.
And the winners are:
2015 MasterMinds
(rolling out through the year)
Kalyn Heffernan/Wheelchair Sports Camp (Royalty Free Haiti)
Anthony Garcia Sr./Birdseed Collective
LadySpeech Sankofa
DeeDee Vicory/D’Lola Couture
2014 MasterMinds
Adam Stone
Eric Dallimore/Leon Gallery
Karen Lausa/Words Beyond Bars
Kim Shively
Lisa Elstun
2013 MasterMinds
Ietef Vita/DJ Cavem
Counterpath Press and Bookstore/Julie Carr and Tim Roberts
GroundSwell Gallery/Danette Montoya and Rebecca Peebles
Nix Bros./Evan and Adam Nix
Kitty Mae Millinery/Susan Dillon
2012 MasterMinds
Hinterland
Ken Arkind/Minor Disturbance
Andrew Orvedahl
Dianne Denholm
Lance Stack/Flat Response
2011 MasterMinds
Slam Nuba
Sarah Slater
Tricia Hoke
Illiterate/Adam Gildar
Tiffiny Wine
2010 MasterMinds
Fallene Wells
Jennie Dorris
Jolt/Guerilla Garden
2010 MasterMinds(cont.)
Eric Matelski
Laura Goldhamer
2009 MasterMinds
Brian Freeland/LIDA Project
Viviane LeCourtois
Ravi Zupa
The Denver Voice
Vicky Nolan
2008 MasterMinds
Creative Music Works
RiNo/Jill Hadley Hooper and Tracy Weil
Jason Bosch/ArgusFest
Art From Ashes
Mona Lucero
2007 MasterMinds
Jessica Robblee
Jimmy Sellars
Tony Shawcross/Deproduction/Denver Open Media
Vox Feminista
The Fabric Lab/Josh and Tran Wills
2006 MasterMinds
Dragon Daud, aka Dave Denney
Katie Taft
Deb Henriksen
Cafe Nuba/Ashara Ekundayo
Johnny Morehouse
2005 MasterMinds
Lauri Lynnxe Murphy
Emerging Filmmakers Project @ Bug Theater
Brandi Shigley
Denver Zine Library
Buntport Theater
Whiteout Designer
Steven
Trujillo/Leon
Design
Steven Trujillo is a native of Denver, the owner of El Salon and the creator of Leon Design. Trujillo
started his career as a dancer, then began designing clothing, and through happenstance ended
up in the hair industry. He has been called a creative savant and has tremendous passion for all
aspects of art and design.
Leon Design collections are provocatively avant-garde and often juxtapose industrial and organic
sculptural shapes, referencing architecture and fashion. Fabrics and materials such as Plexiglas,
plastic and rubber are used to manipulate body proportion and push the boundaries of color,
luminescence and transparency.
In 2015, Leon Design was featured in numerous fashion shows and fundraisers, including
Fashion/Culture 2.0 for CPAC, El Centro Humanitario, 303 Magazine’s Denver Fashion Weekend
and Massif Studios.
Whiteout Designer
Deedee Vicory/D’Lola Couture
2015 MasterMind Winner
Designer Deedee Vicory launched D’Lola Couture in 2010. At her launch, she closed out a large fashion
festival named Fashion Fest 2010 with the debut of her first twelve wedding gown designs and the
opening of her flagship boutique in Historic Olde Town Arvada. Since 2010, she has appeared on
numerous local television shows and played an integral part in multiple large fashion shows. D’Lola
Couture wedding gowns are truly vintage-inspired, with a kiss of contemporary flair. Vicory loves the
deep ivory colors and the modest, elegant but sexy look of gowns from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
Having worked with wedding gowns since 1993, Vicory truly understands the way a wedding dress
should fit on the body of a woman, making her feel like a rock star on the very biggest day of her life!
Whiteout Designer
AJ Machete/Denver Bespoke
Denver Bespoke is a project of designers AJ Machete and Lianna Kachmar. The brand focuses on highly
structured and hand-tailored suits and overcoats that are custom-made to fit each client using a unique
fit system. Denver Bespoke employs ten local artisans who work with the designers to create pieces
for clients around the world using incredible fabrics such as hand-woven Harris tweeds and durable
American-woven gabardine. All of the pieces are sewn by hand or on restored early- and mid-twentiethcentury sewing machines. Lianna and AJ met at Pratt Institute, where Lianna earned a BFA in fashion
design; she later designed clothing for brands at all levels of the industry, including for the label JH
Collectibles at Liz Claiborne immediately before starting Denver Bespoke in 2009. AJ has worked as a
copywriter, designer and filmmaker; he has a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and
a master’s degree from Harvard University.
Whiteout Designer
Deb Henriksen/Equillibrium
2006 MasterMind Winner
Equillibrium is a lifestyle streetwear brand specializing in apparel, handbags and accessories for
both men and women. All designs and products are created with triple bottom-line principles: people,
planet and profit. Founder and creator Deb Henriksen has a background rich in urban roots from
skateboarding, city roots in high fashion, and sustainability roots in green building and environmental
health. This homogenous mixture is what inspires Equillibrium’s style. Equillibrium is a brand that stands
out among competitors. The company’s organic roots and its solid reputation have inspired consumers,
colleagues and the apparel industry to become more conscious in process and less wasteful in general.
Whiteout Designer
Gino
Velardi/Gino
Velardi
Gino Velardi is recognized as one of Denver’s most prominent fashion designers. He received the Wake
Up Your Warrior award — given to recipients who are fulfilling their dreams and goals despite great
illness or disability — in 2012; the award for Denver’s Best Fashion Designer at the annual Denver
Style Expo in 2011, a huge honor considering that the Denver area had three designers on shows
such as Project Runway up for consideration; and Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Couture
Designer of the Year award in 2007. His high-energy fashion shows over the past decade have created
a base of clients that demand his gorgeous evening gowns, flirty cocktail dresses and stylish coats for
their own fashion collections. Velardi’s love of the female figure shows in his continuous search for
designs that complement a woman’s body. He is a self-taught fashion designer who has been refining
his craft for over a decade in the Denver market. He works hard to stay in touch with what today’s client
is looking for while not straying from his own personality and design esthetic. Velardi’s designs utilize
luxurious fabrics to create elegant, high-end designs for the woman who demands to feel beautiful and
will not be satisfied until she has achieved her goal.
Whiteout Designer
Mona Lucero/Mona Lucero
2008 MasterMind Winner
Mona Lucero will present her Spring 2016 “Les Inspirations du Papillon” collection for
Westword’s Whiteout. Each dress comprises vintage scarves draped in the manner in which
a sculptor would create an artwork. Lucero works in a three-dimensional manner, draping
the fabric on the dress form and contemplating every angle in order to enhance the lines of a
woman’s body. Each piece in the Papillon collection is one of a kind. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts
from the University of Colorado and an associate’s degree in fashion design from the Fashion
Institute of Technology, Lucero brings art and fashion together in her signature style, which can
be described as playful, colorful, unpredictable and chic.
Whiteout Designer
Gabriel
Medina/YOCISCO
Gabriel “Cisco” Medina, a Mexican-Italian designer from Denver, began the journey toward his dream
in the summer of 2013, when he launched YOCISCO Underwear. YOCISCO entered the market with a
limited-edition brief featuring color blocking and a design of the Denver skyline. Cisco boldly became
the face of the brand, pulling from his seventeen years of experience in underwear modeling. The brand
was welcomed with open arms by consumers throughout the country. In early 2014, YOCISCO released
a larger collection, using whimsical designs and colorful bamboo fabrics. Retailers across the country
began to take notice. In just under two years in the market, YOCISCO has released its latest line — the
Most Wanted Collection — accompanied by a powerful, thought-provoking campaign. All YOCISCO
underwear is made from bamboo fabric, which is moisture-wickening, odor-absorbing, uber-soft and
eco-friendly. Cisco believes that feeling confident and comfortable is sexy, and since underwear is the
first thing a man puts on, YOCISCO truly is “Where Sexy Starts.”
Whiteout Designer
Elyse Rainbolt/Elyse
2016 Design Contest Winner
Elyse Rainbolt is a native of Ashland, Oregon, who now works and resides in Denver. She is a furrier
and designer and loves working with leather, fur and silk. Her textile design is inspired by Peter Max,
the Beatles and Chris Jagger, who designed and hand-painted jackets for his brother, Mick Jagger, as
well as John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix. Elyse is also inspired by Art Deco design, Busby Berkeley films,
and music and the musicians who create it. She designs for full bands, solo musicians, fashionable
audiophiles and exclusive boutiques.
Whiteout Designer
Anne Fanganello/AnnaFesta
Born and raised in Denver, Anne Fanganello worked in the fashion industry in New York City for eighteen
years. Her varied and extensive background includes positions with Zac Posen (COO), Nanette Lepore
(head of production, technical design and operations teams), Victoria’s Secret, Cynthia Steffe and
more. She was intricately involved in producing New York runway shows as well as overseeing technical
design, fitting, pattern-making and sewing techniques to perfect the collections for production and
sale. Anne has moved back to Denver to create her own line of clothing for today’s real woman. The
AnnaFesta brand offers a curvy collection for women who want to feel confident in beautifully fitting,
curve-enhancing, high-quality, on-trend clothing. All garments are produced in Colorado and designed
with one-of-a-kind ‘FestaFit’ measurements to visually enhance the bust and derriere while slimming the
waist. Anne is an advocate of positive body image, no matter what a woman’s shape or size. The team
motto at AnnaFesta: Love your body!
Whiteout Style Team
Hair By
Makeup by
Nails by
Models by
Whiteout Photographer
Whiteout VIP food by
Artopia Sponsors