Voltage '08: The veteran + the rookies

Red Shoe Clothing Co. designer Kerry Riley in her apartment/workspace. Photo by David Brewster. Voltage: Fashion Amplified was just three weeks away, and designer Kerry Riley still had some patterns and samples to complete. Sitting on the floor of her apartment-slash-design studio, which was carpeted with pattern paper, she was asked how her Voltage line was coming along.

Riley silently pointed a finger to one of her temples, and with her other hand made an explosive gesture coming out of the other temple.

"It's the scary part," she clarified.

A tad overdramatic, you say? Well, Voltage is only the biggest local fashion show of the year in Minneapolis, packing the First Avenue stage with 18 of its top fashion designers and six of its hottest bands for three consecutive hours. This year marks Voltage's fourth show, the introduction of its new umbrella organization MNfashion, and some stiff competition. Thirty-five designers applied to be in the show this year -- more than in any previous year-- and only 12 were selected to have their own runway line. Six more were chosen to design outfits for the bands.

"A good, solid pattern will take eight hours," said Riley. "I've worked on this one," she said, referring to the high-waisted pant pattern in front of her, "for three or four hours so far." But Riley, 31, said she's been refining the same pattern for five years. Clearly, Voltage designers don't mess around.

In the years since doing the first Voltage in 2004, Riley's Red Shoe Clothing Co. has expanded from expertly tailored womenswear to menswear, denim, T-shirts co-designed by Anthem Heart, and accessories. "Kerry is a Voltage favorite," says Anna Lee, the show's producer. "It's been a treat to watch Red Shoe Clothing grow while maintaining its aesthetic and quality."

Riley's newest passion is holsters. Inspired no doubt by a youth spent in and around horse shows, Riley's harnesses made from repurposed belts have been a hit among local fashionistas. Now she's experimenting with more holster-like shapes that fit over shoulders and criss-cross in the back.

Calpurnia Peach's Luci Kandler and Ashley Wokasch, fashion design students at the University of Minnesota, are making their Voltage debut. Photo by Jeff Wheeler. While many Voltage favorites like Riley, Katherine Gerdes and Laura Fulk have returned for this year's show, it will showcase just as many emerging newcomers -- like the duo Calpurnia Peach, who are new not only to Voltage but to designing altogether. The duo's aesthetic and production methods -- a combination of high-concept storytelling, girlish rompers and minidresses, and hand-drawn, screen-printed fabric -- are arguably the most forward-thinking and fresh design that Minneapolis has seen in the past year.

Luci Kandler and Ashley Wokasch, both 21, met as classmates at the University of Minnesota last year and became fast friends. During a semester at Kent State University in Ohio last fall, they heard Voltage was accepting applications for the 2008 show and knew it was an opportunity they couldn't pass up. "To have the chance to do this when we're so young, it's amazing," Kandler said. Lee had nothing but praise for the fledgling designers. "Calpurnia Peach was definitely a standout in the application process," she said. "Their concept was both lighthearted and totally solid."

Once accepted, "We flew over the night before for the first meeting - it was crazy!" Wokasch said. The first Voltage designer meeting they went to "was like an underground secret society -- corporate workers by day, designers by night," Kandler said.

Such intensity for their art seems like a common theme in the Twin Cities creative community. It's nearly impossible to make a living solely as a fashion designer in Minneapolis, so designers typically balance it with full-time jobs designing for Target or a mix of odd jobs.

And Riley is probably the queen of odd jobs. When she's not on location shooting horse shows across the country, she's making flamenco costumes for a local dance group, working the sales counter at local boutique Cliché (where she sells her line exclusively) or working on her line.

"[I'm] just trying to do what I love and not starve to death in the process," said Fulk. "And Voltage provides the ultimate springboard for that."

Jahna Peloquin is a freelance fashion writer and lead fashion stylist for her collective eclecticoiffeur.