At age 24, Shanel Regier is one of Milwaukee's most prominent emerging fashion designers. A Nebraska native and self taught seamstress, she moved to Milwaukee to attend MIAD, where a major in sculpture paved a path to fashion design. She's got a penchant for the Victorian era and says that her one-of-a-kind corsets are her best selling item.

Her first fashion show of '06 -- "Parisian Roots: Performance in Couture" -- is set for Saturday, March 25 at Flux Design's large warehouse. OMC caught up with her to chat about Milwaukee's own fashion sense, the state of our scene and to get the scoop on what we can expect from the designer come spring.

OMC: How long have you been sewing?

S.R.: Well, aside from the sewing class I took in junior high, about three years. I started in 2003.

OMC: What motivated your interest in sewing and design?

S.R.: I was attending MIAD as a sculpture major and I was working on my senior thesis. It ended up being more and more wearable sculpture and then slowly made its way into fashionable clothing. My fashion shows still have a sculptural element to them. I like to incorporate the bizarre, the unwearable.

OMC: Is the majority of your work unwearable?

S.R.: I'd call it "event specific." My stuff is wearable, but definitely not everyday casual wear, for the most part.

OMC: What's been your motivation for your designs?

S.R.: Most of my inspiration comes from historical, or period, clothing. No matter what, I always go back to the 19th century Victorian era.

OMC: Who do you design for?

S.R.: I think a lot of independent designers end up designing for themselves, partially because that's what you have to bounce things off of. I also design things, stylistically, that I would want to wear. So, of course I've got a lot of 18th and 19th century type stuff, because I love it.

But the reason I love the clothing of that time is because it's got so much controversy behind it. Many people nowadays think the clothing back then was so prude and modest and repressive for women, but there's a flip side to it. I can't think of another era when the clothing contoured women's bodies so closely and had so much sexual energy going through it. The corset itself has two contrasting sides to it -- it is restrictive and kind of controlling, but on the other hand, if you put a corset on, I personally feel like it is kind of stimulating.

There's also an argument that doctors of that time period didn't want women to wear corsets or other tight clothing because they felt that it interfered with motherhood and childbirth -- that a women who wore a corset was more concerned about fashion than being at home and being a mother. So, if you look at it that way, it wasn't about women being submissive, it was about women taking control. It was liberating because back then, it was completely out of the norm for a women not to make domesticity a priority.

I really enjoy the psychology of clothing, why we wear what we wear, past and present.

OMC: What are your thoughts on Milwaukee's fashion scene?

S.R.: I'll start by saying that I went down to Chicago on Saturday and checked out a couple boutiques featuring emerging designer and I was really not all that impressed. I mean, besides having more stuff to look at, I don't think the quality or the originality is much more than what we have here in Milwaukee. Granted, we have less shops and a smaller community, but for the amount of people I think we're making an effort and doing a good job.

I still think it's hard, though, to get people to appreciate one-of-a-kind or custom work and to understand the value and price that goes behind it. For example, a true couturier will make a sample dress to work with to get all the bugs out, and then when everything fits, will move on to the final. That process alone can take 20 hours and that's not including traveling for materials. Sometimes there are four or five fittings for each piece and once you add all that stuff up, you can see how a dress can easily get up to $200 to $500. And I don't think designers are pricing it that high because they think it's that unique, it's more that they have to value their time. When you're not mass producing it's hard to cut down on your time or the cost of fabric. I guess that's the thing that I wish Milwaukee had a better grasp on.

Also, I think most people are used to mass-produced clothing and the way it fits. So then when people try on custom work they feel restricted, like they can't move because it hugs closer to the body.