Mirror, Mirror: The vogue vanguard

As we creep out of this recession, turn your attention to a new kind of designer.

This shrewd businesswoman isn't waiting for Barneys New York to validate her work. Instead, she's opening her own private-label boutique. Not content to farm out work overseas, she manufactures her clothes close to home. And rather than spending money on traditional advertising, she is employing social media and shopping websites.

Philadelphia - home to two Fashion Weeks - has its own crop of emerging designers, and they are ungoverned by yesteryear's maxims. Here is a handful who are making a go of it using the new rules - first in Philadelphia, then, they hope, the world.

A reversible clutch makes total sense. After all, how many times can you carry that tiny silver evening bag? Wouldn't it be fabulous if you could turn it inside out and - voilà - have a gold one?

That's what West Chester businesswoman Leigh Ann Barnes thought last year when she launched her handbag line, aptly named Leigh Ann Barnes.

Today the line features three sizes - clutch, medium, and oversize - of colorful Italian leather purses. They all feature a removable chain strap that doubles as a necklace.

Watch closely this month when Desperate Housewives' Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria Parker) and Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) carry the bags on the show.

"I never thought that I'd be making handbags," said Barnes, whose wares are available at Nicole Miller stores in Center City and Vivi G. Shoes in Glen Mills. "I was just following my path, my journey. It led me here."

Barnes' path was accidental.

For Christmas 2007, she gave 15 of her cousins $1 satin clutches from Target that she decorated with removable embellishments. (That was fun.) The following year, Barnes, then a marketing consultant, found herself without much work, due to the tanking economy. She started designing pocketbooks and came up with a reversible clutch - for which she obtained a patent.

Then every time she met someone new, she would talk about her bags. One contact led to another, and through a stroke of luck, Barnes met Valerie Biden Owen, Vice President Biden's sister, at her husband's Blue Pear Bistro restaurant in West Chester. A few months later, Barnes showed Owen the bags and asked her to test them out. Owen did and gave her suggestions.

Then Mary Dougherty, Barnes' friend and owner of Nicole Miller - took a liking to the bags.

Through Barnes' networking, she met a friend of a friend who was a stylist for Desperate Housewives. So instead of hiring a PR company, Barnes flew to L.A. and met the stylist at her backstage trailer. The rest is product placement history.

With startup costs of about $25,000, Barnes has manufactured close to 1,000 bags in her Los Angeles sewing house and sold about 650. In the fall, she plans a trunk show at Henri Bendel in New York. "It's been an amazing adventure," Barnes said. "I never realized how much passion opens doors. It's a perfect networking tool.

Carmelita Couture's slinky gold jumpsuits and knickers in swirly zebra prints are certainly more fun than conventional. This spring the collection featured a see-through bell-shaped raincoat and a clear skirt.

"I really feel my collection is all-American pop art," said creator Carmelita Greco, a 34-year-old mother who lives in Society Hill. "It's an expression of everything I have been influenced by, from Madonna to the Motown sound."

That seems to be working - just look who's wearing it.

Paula Abdul wore a Carmelita Couture red strapless mini-tulle dress when she formally said goodbye on American Idol. Rapper Nicki Minaj wore Greco's sequined jumper during a photo shoot for Vibe magazine. Singer Maya, reality diva Kourtney Kardashian, Vampire Diaries' Katerina Graham, and E! News' Ashlan Gorse also wear Carmelita. Even Sex and the City stylist Patricia Field carries the line in her downtown New York boutique; but you can also shop Carmelita in Beverly Hills and Dubai stores, and locally, at Pileggi Boutique - and now, at Greco's own boutique.

On Saturday, she broke the traditional rules by opening a 1,100-square-foot store at 17 N. Third St. where she will debut her latest collection. In the past, designers would rely solely on other stores to carry their line, possibly opening their own boutique only after becoming a household name. (Tory Burch, for instance, opened a King of Prussia store earlier this month, adding to her other stand-alone stores.) But Greco and other emerging designers are taking control of their retail destinies by distributing their own goods - before fame.

It was when Greco was working for Charles Schwab in Miami five years ago that she started a side gig working for an art investment fund. She got bored wearing suits, so in order to appeal to her more creative client base, she made her own clothes.

"I got more compliments on the clothes I made," Greco said.

Her career as a designer had begun.

Investing $40,000 in her company in 2007, Greco started making collections and showcasing them in fashion shows in Miami's art community. Two years ago, Greco married and moved to Philadelphia. Her 20-piece spring collection is her fourth.

Ron Wilch is not new to the Philadelphia fashion community.

In fact, many remember Wilch's custom suit shop at 15th and Lombard Streets.

Now back at a site he calls the Fashion Lab, the 49-year-old tailor is creating custom suits inspired by President Obama. The line, appropriately named Presidential 44, is a tribute to the well-dressed man.

Each suit Wilch creates is cut from a pattern that he develops and keeps on file for future visits. Ranging in price from $500 to $2,000 for a tuxedo, the suits - which come with two pairs of pants - are available in navy blue and gray, with or without pinstripes. Since launching the line in March, Wilch has sold 10 suits.

"When you dress up, you behave better and you do better business," Wilch said. "We want to completely usher out this casual look that had taken over fashion."

After graduating from Thomas Edison High School in North Philadelphia, he was an assistant designer at Fishman & Tobin, where he worked in patternmaking. He worked in other factories and over the years has taught tailoring in the Philadelphia school system and to prison inmates. He opened his store in Center City in 1992, and in 1996 he moved it to Germantown. The business closed in 1999.

"I went deep into debt," said Wilch, who is also stepfather to Philadelphia-bred rapper Eve. "It was hard to get contracts because people were manufacturing clothes overseas. We had to shut down."

He made a couple of attempts to return to the fashion business, with little fanfare. And his tailoring continued to improve.

In March, Wilch opened his lab at 6143 Germantown Ave. where he designs and manufacturers his suits - a one-stop shop. It also works as a fashion incubator, where he helps young designers develop their ideas and create lines of their own. His initial investment was about $6,000, which covered the cost of fabrics and other materials.

"We have to take charge and make the products completely in America," Wilch says. "And we have to work for ourselves."

Only in Philadelphia could a womenswear collection named the Orange Line make a sartorial splash.

Inspired by the Broad Street subway, Cyan Jeffries' clothes include a form-fitting bell-sleeved dress called Girard, a black A-line skirt named City Hall, and a strapless blue-and-white dress dubbed Olney.

In the last month and a half, she sold 25 pieces from her spring collection.

Doesn't sound like a lot, you say? For a West Philly-based one-woman show - she sews all her pieces - I'd say it's not bad.

"I do pretty well," said Jeffries, whose company is called Exodus Designs. In local indie circles, she's known as Blu.

Now on her sixth collection, Jeffries sells her colorful and tailored clothes primarily through word of mouth, by participating in local fashion shows and on etsy (www.etsy.com/shop/exodusdesigns), a website hawking handmade art. Last month she held a sold-out fashion show at the Treehouse in West Philadelphia.

Cyan attended the Art Institute but didn't graduate. In 2005, she launched her first collection - with $5,000 from her father and sewing equipment and fabric from her mother - called Wallpaper, for plus-size women. Since then, she's expanded her audience to include all women, especially those who don't fit the classic definition of beauty.

She cites African American science-fiction writer Octavia Butler and the 1980s cartoon Thundercats as inspiration. Eventually, Jeffries wants to create a line of bathing suits and menswear.

"I don't identify with the industry's image of beauty," Jeffries said. "I just want to do what I can to help people feel beautiful all the time."