Inspired by Mila Kunis, Isabelle Levine becomes a swan
When Isabelle Levine saw Mila Kunis walking the red carpet at the Oscars, she knew that lilac dress was the dress.Elie Saab Haute Couture, however, is not the most practical choice for prom night.
So this high school senior set out to do what only a few can. She went to work on creating her own vision: her perfect prom dress.
Self-conscious
Her first fashion steps were spent deconstructing her clothes and creating new garments. Levine also learned the ropes sewing from patterns, and then graduated to designing clothing for herself and her friends. One of her first efforts was a shirt she fashioned from bandanas, but rather than taking credit for it, she gave the nod to her mother.
“I was self-conscious about it, for some reason,” she said. “I thought it was cool that my mom could do it, because she was an artist. That story has stuck with me.”
Her mother is artist Kathy Halper by day, and a wizard on the sewing machine herself by night. Levine was never daunted by Halloween, because she knew her mother could re-create the best costumes. It was the pageantry of the costumes and her dedicated eye for design that set her on her path to becoming a fashion designer.
Parsons project
And she’ll be heading to New York this fall to go to Parsons. That Parsons. Parsons the New School of Design.
That’s the same Parsons with the who’s who in fashion on its alumni mailing list: Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford, Thakoon Panchigul and Donna Karan, to name a few.
And in a few years, Isabella Levine joins the alumni list of of fashion giants.
She’s got a mind for the business of fashion already. For the past three summers she has sold her creations at the Port Clinton Art Festival in Highland Park.
When she needed to augment her spring-break fund, Levine advertised that she had some of her designer original tops on Facebook; friend her and you can shop her collections.
“I want to start my business already, but it’s been my dream to go to Parsons since the seventh grade.”
Woodland-fairy-like
She describes her style as free-spirited, romantic and flirty, and Kunis’ dress was her inspiration. She spent time creating a “mood board” — a fashion collage — to help guide her from inspiration to finished dress.
Levine is most proud of all the decorative additions.
“I think the dress is very woodland-fairy-like, which is very me,” she said.
Frustrating work
She started mid-April, and dedicated more than 30 hours to the actual construction of the dress. She found creating the skeleton of the dress the most difficult part.
“I don’t know why, but I have never been more frustrated while making a garment,” she said. “I had to redo the top part twice and it felt like every time I started a new section it took me three tries to get it right! This dress was definitely a challenge for me.”
But designing for yourself is more demanding than for clients, and Levine should know. She had two prom clients last year.