Prom guru fashions young women red-carpet-worthy dresses
On a recent Thursday afternoon, Philadelphia dressmaker Michael Thomas was pinning navy rosettes on a midnight silk-and-tulle prom gown for Baldwin School senior Alex Brittingham.
On a recent Thursday afternoon, Philadelphia dressmaker Michael Thomas was pinning navy rosettes on a midnight silk-and-tulle prom gown for Baldwin School senior Alex Brittingham.
Thomas had been working on Brittingham's dress for a few months, yet the silhouette - with its fitted lace bodice that flares into a full, princess skirt - mirrors the silver Marchesa gown that model Karolina Kurkova wore to the Met Gala on Monday night.
"That gown was amazing," Thomas said. In keeping with the gala's theme, Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology, Kurkova's rosettes were studded with twinkling LED lights.
Thomas' keen anticipation of Instagram-worthy trends, combined with deft sewing skills - he was an intern in Oscar de la Renta's New York studio for three years - have made the 25-year-old designer one of Philadelphia's latest, sought-after custom prom dressmakers.
It's not that custom prom dresses are new. Neighborhood seamstresses and tailors traditionally make the bulk of their cash during these high-traffic prom and wedding months.
But Thomas - along with locals Kashiyan Alfred and Lillie Latasha of Lillie Designs - have built a regional following of young women who yearn for dresses that designers Eli Saab, Zuhair Murad, or Project Runway alum Michael Costello would design for Beyoncé or Rihanna. After all, the #prom2k16 posts must go viral.
"When I wore my Michael Thomas prom dress, everyone wanted to know where I got it from," said Destini Bell of Yeadon.
Thomas made Bell's dress for the 2013 Penn Wood High School prom, and this year, she commissioned him to make a dress for her 21st birthday.
Brittingham, 17, tried her Michael Thomas dress on for the first time Friday and was over-the-moon pleased.
"It was just gorgeous," she said of the dress she plans to wear Saturday. "The funny thing is, I had no idea what I wanted when I first met with him. I just pointed out the things I liked, and he did a sketch and it turned out to be exactly what I wanted."
Inside Thomas' studio, off 11th Street and Girard Avenue, is an industrial-size Juki sewing machine and mood boards decorated with New York Fashion Week runway images, from Prabal Gurung to Zac Posen. Thomas' scrappy shih tzu, Dior, yaps as he trots in and out of the design space.
A rack of muslins against the back wall are the dresses in progress. Thomas plucks a long-sleeve one from the group of six - what will become a hot-pink version of a Murad dress that Chanel Iman wore to last year's amfAR Cinema Against AIDS Gala. Thomas, however, adjusted the plunge so as not to be so cleavage-baring.
"The girls want to look like celebrities, but it's their mothers who are paying for them," said Thomas, who charges between $500 and $3,000 for a prom dress.
Thomas didn't start out intent on becoming a fashion designer. He wanted to perform in a musical theater troupe.
Yet in 2008, as a high school junior, Thomas started altering and making his own clothing. He couldn't find slim-fitting clothes for his then-chubby frame.
One day on the hunt for patches, he walked into Gaffney Fabrics on Germantown Avenue and saw a backless yellow piece with fishtail skirts and midriff-exposing cutouts.
"I knew from that moment on I wanted to make pieces that looked like that," Thomas said.
Designer Valerie Mangum, who sells custom dresses from Gaffney, took Thomas under her wing and taught him the basics of dressmaking: how to put in darts and sew in French seams.
Mangum made the tuxedo jacket Thomas wore to his 2009 Ben Franklin High School prom and then helped him make his first ever prom dress - for his own date. "I've seen progress," Mangum said. "He's pushed himself, and he's really found his voice in the art."
Thomas majored in design at the Art Institute. There, he met fashion professor Emil De John, who helped Thomas secure the de la Renta internship.
At the same time, Thomas was building his prom dress business. After his date's dress (which he now admits he hated), he made a floor-length gun-metal gown for his sister.
She loved it - and her brother - so much that she told her friends, who told their friends. By 2011, Thomas was making about 15 prom dresses a year.
"They were easy. One seam here, another seam there," Thomas said. "But they paid my college tuition."
With the 2014 Met Gala and its nod to couturier Charles James, an interest developed in structured gowns. Thomas found himself creating pieces inspired by the runway looks of Posen, Gurung, and then-Dior creative director Raf Simmons.
So Thomas - who works full time as a Pizzeria Vetri server - reduced the number of gowns he makes a season, to between three and six. It was time to pay more attention to the details.
What does the prom guru predict for next year? After he saw Beyoncé swathed in a flesh-toned latex Givenchy at Monday's Met Gala, Thomas predicts a seismic shift in prom fashion.
"My girls are going to love that dress," he said. "Unconventional fabrics are going to be everything."
Contact Michael Thomas at bewellfaithful@gmail.com or 267-983-7284.
215-854-2704@ewellingtonphl