By Elizabeth O’Brien
Sheila Walker’s work as a lingerie designer began for a very New York reason: real estate.
A conceptual artist and fashion designer by training, Walker had her own bridal gown studio in her native Missouri before moving to New York in 1999. When she got to the city, she found that her new apartment had no room to cut a skirt, let alone a bridal gown. Walker was living in a matchbox-sized apartment in the West Village at the time. She knew she had to adapt if she wanted to make clothing from home, so, “I pared it down to the tiniest little thong I could make.”
A practical decision evolved into something Walker truly enjoys, especially, she said, because it brings people so much pleasure. She has more elbow room now in her Tribeca loft, but she still makes intimates.
“Everyone loves lingerie,” she said. “Guys like it. Girls like it. There’s no critics.”
Nearly one year ago, Walker, 39, opened her Sheila Walker Studio on Duane St. She lives and works in her spacious loft, creating her lingerie and swimwear lines and teaching sewing courses. Her lingerie line, called “She She new york” is sold at Hotel Venus on West Broadway, the Market NYC in Nolita, and other hip stores.
To promote her collections, Walker made her debut last weekend in Lingerie Americas, an intimate apparel trade show held at the Altman Building in Chelsea. Participants must demonstrate a high level of quality and a retail presence in order to show their wares to buyers from all over the country.
Walker spent $2,300 to rent a booth for the three days of the show, where she displayed her lacy boy shorts and camisoles, and silk negligees that double as slip dresses. Unlike many of the frothy concoctions at the show, you probably won’t find Walker’s lingerie in the likes of Victoria’s Secret or Frederick’s of Hollywood. Her pieces have clean, geometric lines and bold colors—lime green with gray or navy, dark and light purple, black and pink.
Buyers making the rounds paused to comment at Walker’s racks.
“It’s fabulous—look at how they did their colors,” said one.
“Those are darling,” said another. While Walker’s pieces look like something that Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw would wear on “Sex and the City,” the designer says that her inspiration is mostly internal. Walker doesn’t own a television and doesn’t read magazines.
Instead, she buys the fabric first and lets it guide her. For example, when she bought lace that was about three inches wide, she thought it would lend itself nicely to a border for boy shorts, which are a more tailored version of boxer shorts for women.
Unlike many fashion designers, Walker has a strong technical background and can make clothes herself. Many designers in the industry rely on others to execute their creative visions. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, Walker is quick to say. But being handy with a needle and thread has its advantages.
“For me, it’s a benefit, because I don’t have to translate my ideas to a sewer,” Walker said. “I can make it. It’s much more satisfying.”
While Walker employs some people to help her make the clothes, she works with them and oversees the production process in her loft. This means she can fill orders much faster than those who produce samples in factories in China or other offshore locations.
For Walker, opening her own studio in New York City represented the culmination of more than 15 years in the fashion industry. She first took up sewing reluctantly, after a high school graduation present from her mother.
“I got a sewing machine and I wanted to die,” Walker said. “All my friends were getting cool things — cars, stereos.”
But she began to sew nonetheless and soon discovered she had a talent for it. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Washington University in Missouri, and, in 1999, a Master of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan.
As she works to expand her business, Walker finds that she gets her best advice not from fashion people, but from fellow Tribeca entrepreneurs who own restaurants or other businesses.
“On days when I think, ‘It’s too much, I can’t do it,’ they give me encouragement,” Walker said.
And Walker has hit on some winning ideas all by herself. In addition to her sewing classes, which include “Basic Sewing” and “Alterations 101,” she has also opened her studio to bachelorette parties, where revelers make their own boy shorts and thongs. The parties are a fitting outlet for Walker’s personality as well as her talents: she’s the kind of teacher who you’d also like to have at your slumber party.
Sometimes, the firemen from next door will pop by during a bachelorette party, giving the guests a thrill. Cheerful and outgoing, Walker knows many of her Tribeca neighbors. She loves the area that she has come to call home.
“I can breathe here,” Walker said. “It feels so comfortable for me.”
In Tribeca, Walker has clearly found the perfect fit.
