Amber alert – Will LSU alumna Amber Perley be NBC’s next Fashion Star?
New England has Vineyard Vines, and the entire East Coast, Ralph Lauren.
California? BCBG and PacSun.
Up-and-coming style houses like Billy Reid and Imogene + Willie may be playing catch-up here below the Mason-Dixon, but one young former Baton Rougean is quickly building a strong brand of geography-inspired Southern style, with her designs already selling in 50 stores stitched across Texas, Louisiana and the rest of the SEC states.
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And yet, Amber Perley’s best shot at sudden fashion fame arrives this month with her appearance on Season 2 of NBC’s Fashion Star. The reality series judged by Jessica Simpson, Nicole Richie and designer John Varvatos promises the winner a multi-million-dollar deal with Macy’s, Sak’s Fifth Avenue and Express.
Perley calls it the opportunity of a lifetime, but it is one she almost did not pursue.
“My friends convinced me to go for it,” says the founder of Pearl Southern Couture, a 2006 graduate of the same Apparel Design, Textiles and Merchandise program at LSU that graduated reigning Project Runway All-Stars champ Anthony Ryan Auld. “It was definitely a case of positive peer pressure.”
Unlike other catwalk-favoring design shows, Fashion Star focuses on everyday wear sold in mainstream stores. This was the hook that snagged Perley.
“It’s a cool concept,” says the designer, now based in Austin. “It’s not just about creating these crazy, eccentric pieces for the runway. Fashion Star is about making clothes for the real world.”
While the Dallas native is no stranger to time-intensive passion projects and competing for the attention of buyers—she worked two jobs and moved in with her parents to save up the money to launch her line—growing comfortable with the reality show’s constant camera presence was a real challenge at first.
“At the beginning, you have to act like the cameras aren’t there, which feels weird,” Perley says. “But then the competition becomes so intense that you’re focused on the task at hand, and you actually forget about them completely.”
Perley cannot divulge her fate on the show, but she can say it was a real test filled with tight deadlines and tighter budgets
“Being on this show is such a rare thing,” she says. “Just to meet those buyers and have my work on TV is better than any advertising I could hope to buy.”
Whatever the outcome, the still-diehard Tiger fan says the exposure from Fashion Star should push her closer to opening a flagship retail store.
Though her line is expanding across the South, Perley’s original inspiration actually came in New York City while she interned for cutting-edge designer Charlotte Ronson.
“I was working up there and kept thinking, ‘God, I miss the culture and the people back home,’” Perley says. “I started looking for more clothes that portrayed the Southern lifestyle and couldn’t find any in stores.”?
Just a few years later, Perley was selling her own dresses, each inspired by a Southern city she loves.
“It’s a little preppy,” she says, “but in the Southern way, with a little Bohemian thrown in there.”
The new season of Fashion Star airs Fridays on NBC starting March 8. Pearl Southern Couture clothing is available locally at Aria, Edit and Hemline boutiques in Baton Rouge.
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