DOING THE TWIST : Susanne Urness designs to a different drummer. Her sportswear for Vision, Shuvit, Hangers dares to be experiment.
When Susanne Urness was growing up in Eastpointe, Mich., she dreamed of clothes that were different from the kind of mainstream, Land’s End styles worn back East.
“I like more forward fashions. In Michigan, it’s pretty basic,” Urness says. “I was frustrated. I’d look at clothes in the store and say, ‘Why’d they do it this way? I would have done it different.’ ”
As the designer for Vision, Shuvit and Hangers--alternative sportswear lines owned by parent company Select Distribution in Costa Mesa and favored by skateboarders--Urness is doing it “different.”
Urness puts an interesting twist on almost every piece of clothing she creates. Her shirts often have subtle details such as piping on the seams or a ‘70s-looking stripe around the sleeves that distinguish them from the usual department store fare. She seeks out unusual fabrics, such as black vinyl for jackets or a retro-looking brown corduroy for a skate pant.
“You have to add a little twist to grab someone’s attention,” Urness says. “Anyone can do mainstream.”
Skateboarders are often surprised when they meet Urness. She doesn’t skate--unless you count in-line skating.
“They’re like, ‘Wow. You design this?’ ” Urness says.
The 28-year-old designer works out of a small, windowless office filled with sketches, fabric swatches and clothing samples.
Urness spends long hours creating two collections a year for all three labels, including new women’s juniors lines for Vision and Shuvit. That’s 100 to 150 cut-and-sew pieces per collection (spring/fall and holiday/summer), not including T-shirts.
“I get so involved; I forget what time it is,” she says. “I strive for perfection. If something’s missing or not right, I’ll keep fooling with it. It’s in my soul,” she says. “I express part of myself through my clothing.”
Ideas for new designs, she says, can turn up while she’s talking to a friend, thumbing through a trade magazine, looking at fabric swatches, meeting with skateboarders or visiting vintage clothing shops.
“I’ll see something vintage and say, ‘What can I do to update it?’ ”
Each season she chooses a new color story. For her spring/fall collections, she picked colors that are brighter than in the past, including some light blues and red, as well as lighter shades of khaki, olive and other natural hues.
Her men’s collections feature retro looks such as a tan poplin shirt with black piping and a ‘50s-looking chevron logo above the pocket and a ‘70s-inspired brown velour pullover with contrasting insets on the shoulders in ash-colored corded knit--a favorite of Urness’ that she calls the Lounge.
Her women’s juniors collections include a ‘50s-style short shirt dress in blue corded knit, a pink corduroy scooter (a shorts-skirt combination) and a wraparound halter top in gunmetal gray satin.
While these designs are meant to be worn to clubs or on the street, other pieces such as the zip-front polar fleece pullovers and corduroy pants can be worn skateboarding.
“Skate girls used to wear guys’ clothing. Now we’re designing for them,” Urness says.
Vision and the other labels sell at specialty skateboards shops such as A-1 Skate in Westminster. Select Distribution has 2,000 accounts in the United States, as well as an international following. Prices range from $36 to $46 for shirts and $44 to $50 for pants.
Urness has designed for Select Distribution for about one year; she hopes to have her own line of clothing.
After receiving a degree in fashion design and merchandising from the American College for the Applied Arts in Westwood, she began her career by working as a designer for Spot Sport, an Orange County sportswear line. She prefers designing for skateboarders because, she says, they’re open to new fashion ideas.
“You can do some bizarre things,” she says. “I can use a funkier fabric, and the lines [of the garment] don’t have to go with it. This season I pulled ‘70s fabrics for a couple of the pieces, and I made a girls’ jacket out of black vinyl with leopard-print material inside. The more unusual, the better.”
In short, she can break the fashion rules, just as she always wanted to do in Michigan.
