Local Residents & Business Owners Come Together in a Fashionable Collaboration

𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐝  |  𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲 𝐛𝐲 𝐄𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐳

Adrenaline pumping, a last minute stitch & fluff, take a deep breath—and it’s showtime! Nothing is quite like the famed New York Fashion Week (NYFW) held, of course, in the very heart of Manhattan. With 97 brands showing, the NYFW schedule is packed full of shows by designers Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, Carolina Herrera, Michael Kors and now Effingham’s very own Judiann Echezabal, of Judiann’s Fashion Design Studio.

The press, the public, store buyers, influencers, and celebrities were all there to view the very latest in international fashion collections and haute couture.

For fashion designer Judiann, it was “an unbelievable week.” Her show featured 20 of her original designs that were walked down the runway at Sony Hall, off of Times Square in a production produced by Runway 7.

“It was a really good show,” she says, despite the time crunch. “We worked on it for four months, when it should have taken six.”

Judiann credits her Georgia studio staff with meeting the show deadline and executing her designs perfectly. “I haven't done a runaway in a long time. Once I opened my studio in Springfield, it freed me up with time and I wanted to get my designs out there.” And the hometown folks were with her all the way. “I had a lot of people from Effingham with me. It was a fantastic crew,” Judiann says, “We worked as a team, and everything came together.”

Erich Perez (Kronos Media Productions, K&R Studios) was there in his capacity as Judiann’s Fashion Design Studio official photographer. “NYFW is unbelievable,” he said, “I was expecting it to be busy, but this was crazy. There were lines two blocks long of people waiting to get into the runway shows. The whole experience was both awesome and intense.”

His wife Dr. Misty Seale aka DJ Orchid (The Real DJ Orchid) also came to NY to provide music and model clothes from the collection for photo shoots by Erich at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central Park.

“Erich’s photos are fabulous,” says Judiann, “and Misty wore my clothes beautifully.”

Erich says, “I loved shooting at the city’s iconic places like the Met and the park.” He says he and Judiann share a style sensibility. “We are both big on art and we mesh together very well artistically and creatively.”

House model Clair Nease from Effingham County was there to walk the runway for Judiann’s show which she did with cool grace and aplomb. She was an instant success, something that can actually happen at NYFW. “Once Clair showed up in New York everyone wanted her to walk for them,” says Judiann. “She went to casting calls with over three thousand people and she ended up walking for ten additional shows. That is phenomenal. She has a big future ahead of her.”

Studio Assistant Ashley Sanders—“who had a hand in everything we did,”—Tanner Maxey, from the Georgia studio, Sophie Ferrin, who provided the handiwork on the crystal shoes among other brilliant items, and Judiann’s daughter Laura Marie, who helped out immensely, were all there working around the clock to make the show a success. Even with all the hands, “Fashion Week was exhausting. We were busy every minute and didn’t have five minutes of downtime.” But they did everything together and ultimately “everyone had a really good time.”

The real story is in the clothing. A quick look at these gorgeous garments and you will notice the perfect beading, the rich textiles, the overall sensuous shape and sophistication. There is luxury and playfulness, elegance and originality in every design. It's obvious why the show was a resounding success.

Multifaceted Designer

Judiann studied fashion in Miami, where she received a degree in Fashion Design and Business and an MBA in business management. By her junior year in college, Judiann had begun American Baby, a children’s wear business, in Florida. Very quickly her company went from three to 20 employees.

“We made everything to order, and it was all sewn in-house and nothing was sent overseas,” she says. The business took off and she sold her line at Saks and Bellini Baby for years. After Hurricane Andrew wiped out her business, she relocated from Florida to Connecticut and started designing small collections of luxury fashions and wedding gowns.

She has also been a college level Fashion Design Professor with many years of experience teaching at Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, Columbia University and Long Island University.

In addition to design and teaching, Judiann is the author of Modern Sewing Techniques: For Inspiration and Motivation to Bring Your Ideas to Life Through the Art of Fashion (BVT Publishing, 2016). She continues to teach master classes online for Parsons as well as an institution in China.

Springfield Studio

When her husband’s business took the family to Savannah, Judiann was able to transfer her design business to a new studio in Springfield. She opened Judiann’s Fashion Design Studios in 2022. “It’s a tradeoff” she says, “New York has all the fabric shops but this great space and the wonderful people I work with would not be possible in New York.”

The space is in a refurbished railyard building and has a city loft look and feel which works well with her designs. Most of Judiann's time in the studio is spent creating customers' orders and her own collections. Currently Judiann and her studio crew are working on Bridal/ Pageant/Evening/Gala wear.

She creates clothing for real people, not necessarily model sized. “We can design for anybody” she says. And it’s not just dresses. Judiann says, “I do jumpsuits, lace pants suits, and creative wedding wear, which can be shorts and tops, using luxury fabrics and handwork.” It’s special occasion clothing created specifically for the client.

Many of the designs in the studio, and the fashion show, are very labor intensive. She says, “The White Rose wedding gown took a whole team to create because every bead was hand embroidered, and the flowers and headpiece were made by hand. Everything we do is from scratch,” she says. And that takes time and expertise because, “I do love glamor.”

New York Fashion Week is held again in September and Judiann is contemplating a return trip to NY for another runway show with all new designs. “I love what I do. I can’t stop. It’s all I ever want to do.” She says she feels very fortunate. “I am excited to come to work every day,” she says.