Chadds Ford designer changing the fashion landscape

Amanda Phelan is among the new breed of emerging designers who are quietly disruptive.

For example, the 28-year-old Chadds Ford native sent a hypnotic women's wear collection - including a stunning mini-skirt, bandeau bra, and coat suit made from dichroic flowers - down her New York Fashion Week runway while an expressive, modern-dance routine was underway.

"I want to create experiences for people that leave them tingling," Phelan told me recently at a Drexel University trunk show she hosted.

Phelan switched up the traditional fashion week show format, sure. But she's also referencing the current movement to change the fashion industry's presentation schedule to a see-it-now-buy-it-now model - as opposed to presenting it preseason but not manufacturing it until the next.

"It's up to the up-and-coming designers to create a new format, not be afraid to take risks, and do what's best for them," she said.

These designers are willing to break long-standing fashion rules that don't serve them - or their constituents. And that is refreshing.

But it's also a risky proposition, especially at a time when emerging brands are looking for investors and trying to get department and specialty-store buyers interested in their androgynous collections that look great with heels and sneakers.

The slow shift hasn't turned any of these emerging labels - think New York's Harbison Collection, Brothers Vellies, or Monse - into household names, yet. But their impact on the overall tone of the industry has been to make it more forward-thinking. For example:

Catwalks have become more diverse. (Phelan used models who were ethnic.) Brands are better at being philanthropic. (Twenty-five percent of sales from Phelan's trunk show were donated to Dragonfly Forest, a summer camp in Conshohocken for children with developmental disabilities.) And satisfying customers' desire to immediately buy collections the moment they see them is slowly becoming a reality. (At Drexel, Phelan's customers were able to order select pieces from the designer's spring and pre-order fall 2016 collections.)

But, most notably, these brands are trying hard to change how the industry does business by creating a more ethical manufacturing process. Phelan produces her collection at fair-wage facilities in New York, Italy, Peru, and China.

Less is more, she says. She hopes her customers - mostly women in their 20s to 40s - invest in the art of a $400 Phelan sweater (or $2,500 gown), rather than buy a lot of regular stuff.

This, according to Phelan, is conscious fashion.

"We've been really deliberate about what we do and how we do it," Phelan said.

Her studied approach is paying off.

Phelan's fall 2016 collection, inspired by a coastal storm - her arresting dresses have tiny holes made to look like they've been thrashed against rocks, her jackets are made from spiraling jacquard to mimic the pattern of a hurricane - received rave reviews from Vogue.com, the Cut, and Women's Wear Daily.

The collection is carried at Nordstrom in San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, and Los Angeles (no word yet on King of Prussia), as well as the department store's online emerging-designer portal curated by Olivia Kim. Phelan has been picked up by specialty stores H. Lorenzo in Los Angeles and Harvey Nichols in London.

In November, Hunger Games actress Amandla Stenberg wore a cobalt cocktail dress by Phelan, and the designer's Brooklyn team is working on a custom piece for Kim Kardashian.

"That's a big deal," Phelan said.

In recent months, Phelan's team has fielded requests from stylists for Rihanna and Lena Dunham.

Phelan's background is as entrepreneurial as it is artistic. Her mom, Sarah, is a jazz musician, and dad, Michael, is the retired CEO of digital-tech company SevOne in Wilmington.

After graduating from Archmere Academy, Phelan attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where she majored in painting until, during her sophomore year, she stumbled into the textile department's biennial exhibit.

"I quickly changed majors," Phelan said. "I was blown away by the machinery. The industrial jacquard looms and the stole machines allowed me to take a painting, upload it into the digital software, and learn the engineering code to make the stitches."

After graduating, she took a job as a textile designer at Nicole Miller. In 2012, she landed a gig on Alexander Wang's knitwear team, where she was part of the group that worked on such memorable pieces as the neoprene $1,000 Parental Advisory sweater copped by Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Kylie Jenner.

Two years ago, she left Wang to start her own business. Her motivation? Two close friends, also artists, had died.

"You realize how short life is," Phelan said, "and that nothing should stop you from daring to do what you are meant to do."

With the financial backing of her dad and a few silent investors - she's actively seeking additional ones now - Phelan launched her collection at New York Fashion Week in September.

Close friend Shannon Gillen of Vim Vigor Dance Company choreographed, and Phelan's boyfriend, Michael Dragovic - the sought-after musician at Yessian recording studio who is behind the punchy music in McDonald's All-Day Breakfast commercial - composed the music.

Phelan walks me through the stormy fall collection that starts with beautiful, lush terrain as evidenced by the dichroic flowers; the cloudy sweaters created with a puffy, 3D floating-weft inlay stitch; and the smooth, grassy green and rust knit dresses.

"It's all about quieting the mind," Phelan said. "A busy mind is a hard place to work, and when everything is still, the ideas are flowing. That's when the materials dictate to you what they want to do."

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