When her name was called as the second place winner of the Caleres Fashion Entrepreneur Competition on Thursday, November 10 at Majorette, the smile on Qristyl Frazier’s face was as wide as the stage of the Maplewood venue.
She stood with the life-sized check for $5,000 being held up by herself, her model Jessica White and her business partner P. Katrena Bragg.
It’s been nearly a year since she returned home after several years in New York as a plus-size (or size sexy, as she calls it) fashion designer. She has enjoyed some wins as far as exposure. Nearly 10 years ago – while fresh in the business – she made a splash when her designs appeared on the popular BET program “Rip the Runway.” She had a line in popular plus-size fashion chain Lane Bryant. She appeared on Bravo’s “All OnThe Line with Joe Zee” and appeared on a season of the popular fashion design competition show “Project Runway.”
Her clothes have also appeared on the covers of ESSENCE and Jet magazines, “The Steve Harvey Show,” “The Rachel Ray Show” and “CNN Living,” among others.
But she’s had her challenges in the past decade of building a brand that creates functional and fashionable clothing for the everyday woman, as opposed to the fashion industry ideal size 0 – including packing up her business and moving it from the fashion Mecca of New York back home to St. Louis.
“This hasn’t been easy,” Frazier said. “I’ve learned the hard way – but I will be doing this until the day I die.”
Through Alive Magazine and The St. Louis Fashion Fund, Frazier saw an opportunity to give her business a boost as she settles into her new home base.
As part of the 10th Anniversary 2016 Saint Louis Fashion Week programming, Alive Magazine, The St. Louis Fashion Fund incubator and Caleres (formerly Brown Shoe Company) teamed up to provide designers with capital to grow their business Caleres Fashion Entrepreneur Competition.
The experience was a hybrid between “Project Runway” and “Shark Tank.” Models wearing a particular line of Caleres Shoes and a design item inspired by the footwear created by the five finalists walked the runway before designer pitched ideas for how they would use the funding of $5,000 for the runner-up and $10,000 for the grand prize.
Qristyl Frazier Designs was the elder stateswoman of the finalists with more than 10 years of operation as a brand.
“I started making clothes when I was 18 years old,” Frazier said in the video presentation portion of the competition. “I began making clothes for all sizes because I wanted women to feel good about the skin they are in and own their curves.”
Frazier told the panel of judges from that she is determined to revolutionize the plus-size industry from right here in St. Louis.
“The average woman is a size 16,” Frazier said. “While many stores carry plus size, they don’t have a lot of options.”
The told judges that if she were to win, the money would be used to create pop up shops, redesign her website, create more inventory and invest into an active wear line for her customers.
“Just because you are curvy, that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to be healthy,” Frazier said.
She also said that she would use a portion of her winnings to incentivize partnerships with plus-size bloggers through coupons and special offers.
The panel and the audience responded well to her pitch, but “cruelty-free” fashion line Fauxgerty and their vegan leather wowed judges and took the top prize.
Frazier seemed overjoyed and hopeful with second place – and the $5,000 that came with the honor.
“This has been a phenomenal experience,” Frazier said. “I would like to thank Alive Magazine and all of their partners for this amazing opportunity.”
