All the Details with Dollparts Design: Fashion Focus, Thrifting, & Sustainability

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After working closely with the designers at The Chicago Fashion Incubator pop-up shop, and following the trajectory of the designer's budding careers Racked's own girl on the go, Shelby Steiner catches up and sits down with Michelle Dimitris of Dollparts Design for a little quality time in the studio.

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After being referred by CFI Director Lara Miller & Fashion Programming Director for Chicago Kiran Advani, Michelle Dimitris of Dollparts Design joined the list of local designers to show at this year’s Fashion Focus. For this collection, you can expect a few surprises from Dollparts.

With the mix between vintage fabric and remainder goods, Dollparts is
known for creating retro ensembles, but she is now playing with
different weaving techniques and faux suede. Her tags, screenprinted
by Dimitris personally, are used on scrap fabric to minimize waste.
Majority of her designs come from repurposed fabric, remainder goods,
and of course, vintage. Her signature style includes using unlike
prints or fabrications and combining the two for an unlikely, yet
unique look. Despite spending twelve hour days slaving away on her
latest collection, she never gets bored. Switching it up between
sketching, sewing, and patternmaking is exciting to her and she can’t
wait to see the process complete.

Dimitris, who was also a store manager for the CFI Launch Shop last
spring, is a huge fan of thrifting (obviously) and shared a few of her
secrets with us. “Even though clothes are inexpensive at these kind of
stores, it’s important to think about what you’re buying and to think
about how you will style it with the rest of your wardrobe,” she says.
While she is out hunting for remainder goods to turn into something
new and fabulous, Dimitris searches for garments with pleats or tucks
that have the most fabric to offer. If she’s not in her Wicker Park
studio working, she’s practicing yoga, checking out her favorite blogs
like Tres Awesome or Chicago Looks, and making dinner with friends. -Shelby Steiner
· Dollparts Design {official Site]