First Cincinnati Fashion Week starts today
Brainchild of one ambitious local designer

Independent fashion designer Nathan Hurst has an approach to life that's more like a leap at it.

"I tend to throw myself into things whether I know what I'm doing or not. It's chaotic but you end up with a really interesting product," says Hurst, 23.

Less than eight months after his first fashion show, Hurst, from New Richmond, is lining up a week of local events, starting today, featuring designers who have dressed the likes of Alicia Keys and Fergie, studied with icons like Betsey Johnson and have studios around the world.

Cincinnati Fashion Week, today through Saturday, will include runway shows from 16 designers and special shopping events at hot spots, boutiques and studios around Greater Cincinnati.

The roster focuses on up-and-coming young designers, Hurst says, supplemented by experienced designers such as David Meister, who has dressed celebs including Tina Fey, Elizabeth Hurley and Sharon Stone.

"I really wanted this to be a platform for young professionals like myself," Hurst says.
Just last year, the self-taught designer was a nursing student at Cincinnati State, but his passion for fashion - at 15, he filled a sketch pad with dress designs, and at 17, he got his first sewing machine which he used to make hoodies and other apparel for his dogs - kept tugging him in a different direction.

"In the back of my mind, I think this is what I always wanted to do," Hurst says.

A casual conversation with a friend last July sparked Hurst's first show in August, with a collection he created in less than a month in order to fill the only available date at the CS13 gallery in Over-the-Rhine.

Plans for Cincinnati Fashion Week progressed just as rapidly, after Hurst dreamed up the idea in November. A Facebook page and word of mouth from the 200 or so volunteers involved in the project drew more than 100 applicants, Hurst says.

He believes the Tristate's low fashion saturation helped attract many of the designers, including alumni from the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning and Cincinnati-based designers Ashley Bowman, Josh Stevens, Amy Kirchen, and the Brush Factory's Lynda Lucas and Rosie Kovacs.

"It's not been done in this area to this degree. As artists, they're excited to have this platform in the Midwest where they can showcase their work," Hurst says. Amy Howell Hirt