Emerging Designer's Competition - Part 1

Let’s meet SZN IV’s competing designers! We have six talented artists ready to paint the runway with every color of the rainbow. If you didn’t know, Birmingham is full of the brightest, most innovative, and most creative beings in human form. On Friday, June 10th, these humans will compete for a huge prize - $10K and the title of MCFW Emerging Designer Runway Winner. 

We will meet three SNZ IV competitors this week and three next week! This week, these talents share their love of Birmingham’s food culture, their familial influence on fashion, and embracing design at an early age. 

Pyper Gilbert of Pyper Collection 

Birmingham native and lover of all the city's food options, Pyper began her path as a fashion designer as a young upcycler by raiding her parents’ closet and making her creations with just a needle and thread. In college, her choice was simple - a degree in Fashion Design and Retail.

She enjoys recreating what she finds from thrift stores into unimaginable beauties. Pyper believes that finding multiple uses for a single item is a simple way to reduce waste. This sustainable designer has an eye for abstract art on any fabric and is a budding sneakerhead. If given one million dollars, she would become debt-free, save some,  and reinvest into her brand. 

Darryl Peoples of Heru Ra Creations 

Darryl Peoples feels that fashion is not what he does but who he is. When he designs, he feels creative, powerful, and in control. Originally from Bessemer, he also gained an affinity for fashion as a child. Modeling was his foot in the door, but Darryl found mental stability once he opened himself to design. 

He believes timeless fashion is sustainable fashion. Using that mindset, Darryl would open a studio to teach fashion via a summer camp and create a scholarship foundation for deserving high schoolers to attend fashion design school if gifted a million dollars. 

Aaliyah Taylor of Exalting in Beauty 

Easily identified in her favorite overalls from Target and funky frames, Aaliyah Taylor is the creator and founder of Exalting in Beauty. She grew up admiring the instinct of the women in her family to create their Sunday’s best outfits. After entering her high school’s fashion show, she gained the boost needed to make her mark.

 For Aaliyah, sustainable fashion is responsible fashion. She was raised in a humble household, so she knows the value of a dollar and how to transform clothing to fit her style and taste. She describes her upbringing as collectivist culture because of the importance placed on community and support and sees that reflected in the mood of Birmingham. This ideology guides how she would spend one million dollars - first giving honor to God by tithing, becoming debt-free, purchasing a home for her and her mother, investing in her brand, and creating generational wealth. 

Please prepare your hearts and your minds because these folks are ready to give you the fashion you did not even know you needed!

Until next week...

Give love. Get love.