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Urban Unicorns, Eat Designs with Alisha Trimble
by Uduak Oduok
Photos by Ben Miller
I met Alisha Trimble late last year, at her apartment in the city, for an interview about her line, Eat Designs. What made me seek the interview was the Betsey Johnson feel of her designs and her extreme confidence. At a really petite frame of 5ft 2in, Alisha has a really tall confidence.
Her apartment could have been an office cubicle. She, however, managed to split it into a bedroom and a fashion studio. During the interview, she recounted her initial studies in Detroit and her subsequent completion with a BFA from SF Art Institute. And then, the most bizarre thing happened. Once again, this really petite woman launched, with extreme confidence, into how she already sold some of her work to buyers at Neiman Marcus. She added, “One door keeps opening and it is always fun. In five years I hope to have my merchandise in about every city and reach people with . . . what I am doing.”
I was perplexed. I thought to myself, “this gal is different. I really thought I would get the typical struggling artist story. Is she aware of her reality in this tiny cubicle? There are thousands of designers out there. How did she convince Neiman Marcus to even look at her, much less buy her work?”
Unable to contain my curiosity, I asked, “Looking at your reality, how is it that you are so confident. Where does your confidence come from?” She answered, “Anything is possible. I was raised to believe this. I have started to work in the industry with more established brands and the models are competent. . . . I get these visions all the time and it comes from meditation, all the time. I don’t evoke it. It just comes to me and it inspires my work and confidence.”
According to Alisha, Eat Designs is a result of being fed up with graffiti spray painted on every beautiful part of Detroit; when she studied painting at the Pratt Institute. One day, she got fed up and sprayed eat with a heart around it to signify “eat your heart out.”
Alisha uses lots of recycled materials, furs, velvets and laces that stretch because “they are flirtatious and allow for size accommodations.” She says she is still growing as a designer and tries to figure out the various spins she can give to a look. Her favorite designs are those seen on the runway. “That to me is a level of art.”
Consistent with the mentality of most independent designers in San Francisco, she would rather not be too commercialized. Her goal is to “create a message people can understand that’s not too much of a compromise.”
The women who wear Eat Designs are, according to Alisha, “Urban Unicorns”. Women, “who are mystical in the way they have mystery about them and charm. They are women who really use their intelligence and creativity to express themselves through their style.”
She credits Erika Gessin, founder of San Francisco Fashion Week, as being instrumental in giving her opportunities. She adds, “San Francisco has been supportive and given me one chance after another.”
Late 2004, Alisha moved to NY for more opportunities. She, however, continues to maintain her San Francisco clientele and now has her line in fine boutiques in San Francisco, New York and Chicago. She regularly visits San Francisco to give lectures as well as sell her designs at local fashion events.
Spoken like a designer who has already wielded success, she says, “my biggest challenge is finding time to relax and enjoy accomplishments and make my personal relationships work.”
Copyright 2005. Ms. Oduok is a fashion model and attorney based in Northern California.
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