Carlisle to host Feltloom Style Show
Designers from across the country and around the world and those interested in fashion will be visiting Carlisle/Nicholas County Friday, Sept. 16 for the sixth annual Feltloom Style Show. Last year the event was held in Paris at the Bourbon Restaurant. Prior to that it’s been held in Sharpsburg at inventor/design Lanette Freitag’s Training Lodge at her farm.
The connection to Carlisle was made when Freitag visited Ricky Hicks at 3-star industries to look into having custom sewing done for some of her designs of natural dresses, hats, purses, and even a hunting vest - created from the natural fiber materials she created from her alpaca, sheep and llamas.
“It’s great to see textiles returning to Carlisle and the sewing industry jobs coming back after the Jockey Textile plant left here. There is a lot of sewing talent in Kentucky and Carlisle seems to be in the thick of it with Liz & Roo now being sewn and distributed from here and other designers talking about bringing their work to Nicholas County as well.”
FeltLOOM is her brainchild, a machine she created, designed and patented with her husband Don Bowles in order to turn the fibers from her farm into material she could create fashion with. She needed a more productive way to use the fibers produced on her farm from her alpaca, sheep and llama to make the farm sustainable. She started working on the design in 2003 and got her patent in 2008. In the meantime she converted an old tobacco barn on the farm into her manufacturing center. She described the FeltLOOM as a revolutionary needle felting machine that transforms and re-purposes fabric. It literally turns fibers into fabric and transforms them into up-cycled materials for new applications.
It’s the mix of the fibers a designer use that define the look. Freitag will be wearing a dress at the Fashion Show that she created out of bamboo fiber blended with wool and silk. Designs by Laveren Zabielski from Kentucy http://lavernezabielski.com, and Sandy Liggett from New Mexico www.whispirit.net illustrate entirely different looks that will also be part of the show. Models from the Lexington Fashion Collaboartive will be modeling for the evening.
Sanne Muiser from the Netherlands, and a graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven, the Neterlands will be guest speaker sharing her thoughts on the trend back to natural fibers around the world, and the end of the fashion industry as we know it. She is a follower of the woman form the parson’s Design School in NYC who redesigned how design schools are refocusing their teaching. She sees the fashion industry as we know it on it’s last leg and design going back to the “couture” clothes from the old days, with local designers working within the community creating beautiful fashions that will change how we view clothes. Muiser discovered FeltLOOM and told Freitag that her invention is bringing this thinking into reality, and that it is the future of design.
Freitag has sold her FeltLOOM machines across the country and around the world in (14) countries to date, not only to designers but to design institutes, including (2) in New Zealand, Parsons Design school in NYC, and at the University of Kentucky.
The event Friday evening Sept. 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Neal welcome Center, Mozart Hall 108 West Main St, Carlisle, KY 40311 is open to the public. Tickets are $5. Desert after the show is included. For reservations call 855-335-7566.
