subject: Chicago Fashion Designer, Stephanie Kuhr of Dottie's Delights [print this page] http://www.examiner.com/fashion-designers-in-chicago/chicago-fashion-designer-stephanie-kuhr-of-dottie-s-delights
Keeping it tight and sexy. Stephanie Kuhr of Dottie's Delights creates lingerie and foundation wear that allows you to look sleek and sexy in that clingy outfit. Stephanie is the design force behind her high-end lingerie and foundation wear line, Dottie's Delights. She named her company in honor of her grandmother, Dorothy Kuhr. Stephanie puts an updated spin on old classics lingerie and shapewear. Born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, Stephanie considers herself an old-fashioned girl. Back in high school, she wanted to open an antique and vintage clothing shop, but then decided there was no major tailored towards that, so she decided on fashion design.
After starting out studying fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Stephanie transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she earned a Bachelor's degree. After college, Stephanie did theater costume designing for a few years. She learned a lot about custom work, and historical research. While doing the theater costume designs, she started on the road to creating her lingerie and shapewear line. She is also skilled at metalworking.
Stephanie credits the Chicago Fashion Incubator, especially Lara Miller, as her mentor, for sharing her experiences, resources and advice. She feels that by going through the CFI program, she was able to tie everything together, and the experience helped her to develop her line into a full-time business.
Drawing inspiration from the past, she creates vintage style lingerie and foundation wear for her Dottie's Delights collection. She admires the quality and craftsmanship of mid-century fashion design, which was very feminine, fun, flirty and demure -- yet sexy and empowering. Stephanie says she is inspired by pin-up and burlesque in modern times, and the golden eras. She says the Dottie's Delights line is all about making the body look its best, and flattering the female figure.
She advises future designers to be creative and to do research. She says you will also need technical and business skills, and be able to communicate your ideas into a physical product.
Stephanie's design philosophy is that you should wear what makes you look and feel your best -- especially foundation garments and shapewear which are great tools to make sure that happens. She also says, "If you are going to get glam, do it right." "Nobody likes a fab wiggle dress spoiled by a little unruly tummy or dreadful panty line."
The Dottie's Delights collection supports female curves in every sense of the word by providing high-end lingerie that focuses on attractive design, fit, and function with an emphasis on the quality, attention to detail, and techniques found in mid-century vintage foundation designs.
All of the Dottie's Delights products are made using the best quality materials (fine lace, paired with heavy, but luxurious satin and heavy duty compression fabrics -- to really get the job done), right down to the metal garter clips with cloth and rubber stays. Most other companies use plastic ones that do not hold as well.
She would love to see her lingerie worn by Joan on an episode of Mad Men. If she wasn't designing, Stephanie says she would be in graduate school studying historical preservation of textiles.
Stephanie loves the fact that Chicago has its own sense of style and unique take on fashion. And, she hopes the city continues to flourish and nurture and support its young designers.
Follow Stephanie on Facebook at fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dotties-Delights/122385964442886?ref=ts. Her website is in the works, and she has a blog at www.dotties-delights.com.
Looking ahead, Stephanie says, she will expand and grow, and she hopes to open a small studio and retail space next year. A space where she will showcase many different emerging local designers and artists in a pop-up shop and event sort of environment.
Chicago Fashion Designer, Stephanie Kuhr of Dottie's Delights
