Highlights from Saturday Night's CFW Emerging Designers Party

This past Saturday night, I was invited to celebrate the Southeast's newest class of couture talent heading into Charleston Fashion Week 2013. This weekend's Emerging Designer Party, held at the old Boathouse building downtown, offered a sneak peak at their collections (via slideshow of sketches). It was an awesome night to give us a taste of the designers who will be competing at Charleston Fashion Week in March.

Needless to say, a fashion event like this draws a plethora of stylish guys and gals. Scroll down to see who I thought were the standouts of the night. 

Matthew McLaughlin

Here are some quick interviews with three sets of semi-finalists:

1. What are you most excited about presenting at Charleston Fashion Week?

Poku: The opportunity to share my vision of menswear with the world.

Emerging Designer Semi-Finalists Clarissa Arocena and Bryan Datinguinoo

1. What are you most excited about presenting at Charleston Fashion Week?

Arocena & Datinguinoo: The fact that it's our first collection as a duo at Charleston Fashion Week!

2. What was the inspiration for your collection? 

Arocena & Datinguinoo: The Industrial Revolution and the clothes that men and boys would wear working in factories. Craftsmen such as blacksmiths, tailors, cobblers, and weavers also inspired us.

3. Why do you want to be a designer?

Arocena & Datinguinoo: It is our platform to present a creative vision.

1. What are you most excited about presenting at Charleston Fashion Week? 

McNeil: Sharing my creative vision with the city that introduced me to the fashion world as a model two years ago. 

McNeil: As humans we tend to take the world around us for granted, we make our lives larger than the universe. I aspire to reverse that.