After graduating from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School in 2005, Ty Sinnett attended Bard College where she majored in religion. She focused primarily on Buddhism, but wrote her thesis on the Freemasons. Not the most direct path for a future fashion designer, but faith can play a part in any and all vocations.
Plus, she had creativity in her genes.
Her grandfather Kib Bramhall is a renowned Vineyard artist, her uncle Everett Bramhall graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and works as an architect and product designer, and her aunt Nina Bramhall is a photographer. And for 28 years, her mother Emily owned Bramhall & Dunn, a high-end fashion and design store in Vineyard Haven.
“I was practically born in that store,” Ms. Sinnett said by phone, as she made last minute preparations for her debut fashion show as part of Boston Fashion Week. Her designs will be presented on Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. at the W Hotel on 100 Stuart street in Boston. Fashion week runs through Oct. 11.
After college, Ms. Sinnett returned to the Island and “did the Vineyard shuffle for a few years.” Then she moved to Boston to pursue fashion, attending the Boston School of Fashion Design beginning in the winter of 2012.
It turns out she was a natural.
For two years straight, the school awarded her the trustees scholarship, “this generous, amazing scholarship to keep you doing your work,” she said. And last year the school nominated her to show her work to the Launch committee, which helps young fashion designers in the Boston area by providing them with mentors, and, if chosen, inclusion in fashion week.
Ms. Sinnett was picked as one of just four young designers in the Boston area to be part of the program. For the judging committee process she created pieces based on the coursework she had completed at the time — a style and line course, and a bridal wear course. For her wedding dress she went back to the roots of her family again, this time on the carpentry side. Her father, Steve Sinnett, is a builder and landscaper.
“Creating a wedding dress is like building a house,” Ms. Sinnett said. “You start with the foundation, and with bridal wear it’s the undergarments, the corsets and petticoats, all the things that are going to keep a woman into a dress and create the shape of the dress.”
For her dress, the foundation needed extra attention. For the skirt, she imagined something from a debutante ball, “straight out of the South.”
“In my clothing I enjoy big shapes,” she said. “If I’m making a wedding dress, there’s no better time to go big and girly and feminine.”
She began the foundation with the lining, “which protects the body of the wearer from the other layers and vice versa.” The vice versa means protecting the garments from the body in the form of sweating on a hot wedding day.
The next installment was a petticoat with “seven different layers of tulle stacked horizontally on top of each other to achieve a big, full skirt. It’s like an onion, all the layers.”
An underskirt came next. “The only purpose is to hide the petticoat and lining from view; the functional, not pretty stuff.”
Naturally, Ms. Sinnett likened these layers of the dress to the framing of a house, which is eventually hidden behind the sheetrock.
The result is one strong design. “The skirt is so full, the dress stands up on its own. Like a giant inflatable bowling pin,” she said.
For the top part of the dress she created a “strapless sweater, neckline dress, with a full dirndl skirt with a train.”
“I love that word, dirndl,” she said, interrupting herself. “I love it so much I’m making 18 dirndl skirts for my launch collection.”
She admitted she was kidding and only focusing on 10 dirndls. No, make that “two, possibly three dirndls out of 12 outfits.”
To go with the dress, Ms. Sinnett also created a maid of honor dress. “A very fun, summer print with a more relaxed feel,” she said. Not that the wedding dress isn’t fun, too. She was, after all, thinking of a Vineyard beach wedding when she created the design.
Her show in October was once again inspired by the Island, but this time from afar and with a fair amount of longing to be here. Her plan last year was to return to the Island for the whole summer and enjoy its charms once again. But after being chosen to be a part of Boston Fashion Week, she had to stay in Boston to work nonstop in preparation. Her response was to design clothes that have “a summer resort feel, inspired by life on the Vineyard.”
Perhaps that is the next best thing to being on the Vineyard. Not simply dreaming of being here, but creating a new look for when you return.
Comments (1)
Comments
Comment policy »