SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20 // CITY HALL // 1144 BROADWAY

Designers

Designers2016 Westword Artopia

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About the event...............................Westword MasterMind Award......... Steven Trujillo/Leon Designs..........AJ Machete/Denver Bespoke.........Deb Henriksen/Equillibrium............Gino Velardi/ Gino Velardi...............Mona Lucero/ Mona Lucero............Gabriel Medina/YOCISCO................Elyse Rainbolt/Elyse........................Anne Fanganello/AnnaFesta............Deedee Vicory/D’Lola Couture........Whiteout Style Team........................Sponsors.........................................

Join us onSaturday, February 20, for Artopia 2016, a night of art, culture and fashion at City Hall.

Enjoy cocktails, too, as you move through multiple spaces of art installations and exhibits curated by Jolt from Guerilla Garden, showcasing Denver’s most exciting artists as well as

some stars on the national scene.Whiteout, the Westword fashion show, will also return to Artopia, featuring nine local

designers and their interpretation of “The Art of Fashion.” Watch as Wilhelmina models strut down the runway in AnnaFesta, D’Lola Couture, Denver Bespoke, Elyse, Equillibrium, Gino

Velardi, Leon Designs, Mona Lucero and YOCISCO. For the fi rst time, Whiteout will feature a curve line and a men’s underwear line.

Westword ArtopiaSaturday, February 20, 2016 // 5:30 p.m.-midnight

City Hall (1144 Broadway) Denver, CO 80203Happy Hour // $40

Come at 5:30 p.m. for a special reception featuring food samples from participating restaurantsand a chance to preview the art, then stay for all the fashion and fun of Artopia itself as a

general admission ticket-holder.

GA // $35Come at 7 p.m. for all the art, fashion and entertainment of Artopia, which runs until midnight.

VIP // $95Come at 7 p.m. for a special reception featuring food from Troy Guard restaurants, an open bar and

a gift bag; enjoy special runway seating during the Whiteout fashion show(limited to VIP only).

Meet the MasterMindsIn the early 2000s, Denver was all about the creative class. Author/big thinker Richard Florida had labeled the metro

area one of the top creative spots in the country, an honor that John Hickenlooper used to promote the city that had just elected him mayor. Fifteen years before, he’d been one of those entrepreneurial adventurers — an unemployed geologist who joined with other visionaries to found the town’s fi rst brewpub, the Wynkoop Brewing Co., still going strong 25 years

later. And Hickenlooper, too, is still going strong: Today he has a starring role as governor of Colorado.

But we didn’t need Florida’s seal of approval, or Hickenlooper’s unusual career path, to know that Colorado is full of creativity. For generations, the Front Range has drawn artists and other aesthetic explorers, people who want to make their mark on the landscape — people every bit as daring as would-be brewmasters or new politicians, but rarely as

high-profi le. Or highly compensated.

In honor of the groundbreaking, often underappreciated and almost always underpaid work that so many of these artists were doing, a decade ago Westword created the MasterMind awards, a grant program that every year gives fi ve no-strings-attached awards to arts organizations and individuals in the fi elds of literary arts, performance, multimedia,

visual arts and fashion/design. We inducted our fi rst class in 2005 and will name our twelfth class in 2016.

When we named Buntport to that original class of MasterMinds, it was a fl edgling theater troupe of Colorado College grads; today it’s one of the biggest draws in the city, a theatrical institution with a national reputation that continues to do cutting-edge work. Other early honorees, including the Denver Zine Library, have had a tougher time over the past decade; now under the guidance of Kelly Shortandqueer, the library recently moved to a new home where it opened a fresh chapter. And individuals like Brandi Shigley (our fi rst fashion honoree) continue to impress us not only with the scope of their own art, but with their support of other artists despite the challenges of keeping an artistic enterprise

alive. And while some award-winners have left town, a surprising number of MasterMinds have stayed in this city, where today they are integral members of the increasingly lively arts scene. And they also contribute to the increasingly lively

process of choosing the next class of MasterMinds.

Our MasterMind winners take the title seriously; at the same time they push the envelope with their own art, they’re always scouting new talent. And so every year, the MasterMind nominations list is a guide to the breathtaking scope and

sweep of cultural activity in this area. While narrowing that group down to the fi ve who will each get a $2,000 grant is one of the hardest things we do all year, making the calls to the new class of MasterMinds to let them know they’ve won

is defi nitely the easiest. And the most satisfying.

With the announcement of the 2015 class of MasterMinds, we have now honored over fi fty artists and arts organizations since 2005, giving grants totaling well over $150,000. At a time when grants for individual artists are increasingly rare,

the MasterMind program itself has won awards, including a prestigious prize from the Colorado Business Committee.

And the winners are:2015 MasterMinds

(rolling out through the year)Kalyn Heffernan/Wheelchair Sports Camp (Royalty Free Haiti)

Anthony Garcia Sr./Birdseed CollectiveLadySpeech Sankofa

DeeDee Vicory/D’Lola Couture

2014 MasterMindsAdam Stone

Eric Dallimore/Leon GalleryKaren Lausa/Words Beyond Bars

Kim ShivelyLisa Elstun

2013 MasterMindsIetef Vita/DJ Cavem

Counterpath Press and Bookstore/Julie Carr and Tim RobertsGroundSwell Gallery/Danette Montoya and Rebecca Peebles

Nix Bros./Evan and Adam NixKitty Mae Millinery/Susan Dillon

2012 MasterMindsHinterland

Ken Arkind/Minor DisturbanceAndrew OrvedahlDianne Denholm

Lance Stack/Flat Response

2011 MasterMindsSlam Nuba

Sarah SlaterTricia Hoke

Illiterate/Adam GildarTiffi ny Wine

2010 MasterMindsFallene WellsJennie Dorris

Jolt/Guerilla Garden

2010 MasterMinds�cont.�Eric Matelski

Laura Goldhamer

2009 MasterMindsBrian Freeland/LIDA Project

Viviane LeCourtoisRavi Zupa

The Denver VoiceVicky Nolan

2008 MasterMindsCreative Music Works

RiNo/Jill Hadley Hooper and Tracy WeilJason Bosch/ArgusFest

Art From AshesMona Lucero

2007 MasterMindsJessica Robblee

Jimmy SellarsTony Shawcross/Deproduction/Denver Open Media

Vox FeministaThe Fabric Lab/Josh and Tran Wills

2006 MasterMindsDragon Daud, aka Dave Denney

Katie TaftDeb Henriksen

Cafe Nuba/Ashara EkundayoJohnny Morehouse

2005 MasterMindsLauri Lynnxe Murphy

Emerging Filmmakers Project @ Bug TheaterBrandi Shigley

Denver Zine LibraryBuntport Theater

Jolt/Guerilla Garden

� iteout DesignerSteven Trujillo/Leon Design

Steven Trujillo is a native of Denver, the owner of El Salon and the creator of Leon Design. Trujillo started his career as a dancer, then began designing clothing, and through happenstance ended up in the hair industry. He has been called a creative savant and has tremendous passion for all

aspects of art and design.

Leon Design collections are provocatively avant-garde and often juxtapose industrial and organic sculptural shapes, referencing architecture and fashion. Fabrics and materials such as Plexiglas,

plastic and rubber are used to manipulate body proportion and push the boundaries of color, luminescence and transparency.

In 2015, Leon Design was featured in numerous fashion shows and fundraisers, including Fashion/Culture 2.0 for CPAC, El Centro Humanitario, 303 Magazine’s Denver Fashion Weekend

and Massif Studios.

� iteout DesignerDeedee Vicory/D’Lola Couture

2015 MasterMind WinnerDesigner Deedee Vicory launched D’Lola Couture in 2010. At her launch, she closed out a large fashion

festival named Fashion Fest 2010 with the debut of her fi rst twelve wedding gown designs and the opening of her fl agship boutique in Historic Olde Town Arvada. Since 2010, she has appeared on

numerous local television shows and played an integral part in multiple large fashion shows. D’Lola Couture wedding gowns are truly vintage-inspired, with a kiss of contemporary fl air. Vicory loves the deep ivory colors and the modest, elegant but sexy look of gowns from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Having worked with wedding gowns since 1993, Vicory truly understands the way a wedding dress

should fi t on the body of a woman, making her feel like a rock star on the very biggest day of her life!

� iteout DesignerAJ Machete/Denver Bespoke

Denver Bespoke is a project of designers AJ Machete and Lianna Kachmar. The brand focuses on highly structured and hand-tailored suits and overcoats that are custom-made to fi t each client using a unique

fi t system. Denver Bespoke employs ten local artisans who work with the designers to create pieces for clients around the world using incredible fabrics such as hand-woven Harris tweeds and durable

American-woven gabardine. All of the pieces are sewn by hand or on restored early- and mid-twentieth-century sewing machines. Lianna and AJ met at Pratt Institute, where Lianna earned a BFA in fashion

design; she later designed clothing for brands at all levels of the industry, including for the label JH Collectibles at Liz Claiborne immediately before starting Denver Bespoke in 2009. AJ has worked as a

copywriter, designer and fi lmmaker; he has a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University anda master’s degree from Harvard University.

� iteout DesignerDeb Henriksen/Equillibrium

2006 MasterMind WinnerEquillibrium is a lifestyle streetwear brand specializing in apparel, handbags and accessories for

both men and women. All designs and products are created with triple bottom-line principles: people, planet and profi t. Founder and creator Deb Henriksen has a background rich in urban roots from

skateboarding, city roots in high fashion, and sustainability roots in green building and environmental health. This homogenous mixture is what inspires Equillibrium’s style. Equillibrium is a brand that stands out among competitors. The company’s organic roots and its solid reputation have inspired consumers, colleagues and the apparel industry to become more conscious in process and less wasteful in general.

� iteout DesignerGino Velardi/Gino Velardi

Gino Velardi is recognized as one of Denver’s most prominent fashion designers. He received the Wake Up Your Warrior award — given to recipients who are fulfi lling their dreams and goals despite great illness or disability — in 2012; the award for Denver’s Best Fashion Designer at the annual Denver Style Expo in 2011, a huge honor considering that the Denver area had three designers on shows

such as Project Runway up for consideration; and Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Couture Designer of the Year award in 2007. His high-energy fashion shows over the past decade have created a base of clients that demand his gorgeous evening gowns, fl irty cocktail dresses and stylish coats for

their own fashion collections. Velardi’s love of the female fi gure shows in his continuous search for designs that complement a woman’s body. He is a self-taught fashion designer who has been refi ning

his craft for over a decade in the Denver market. He works hard to stay in touch with what today’s client is looking for while not straying from his own personality and design esthetic. Velardi’s designs utilize

luxurious fabrics to create elegant, high-end designs for the woman who demands to feel beautiful and will not be satisfi ed until she has achieved her goal.

� iteout DesignerMona Lucero/Mona Lucero

2008 MasterMind WinnerMona Lucero will present her Spring 2016 “Les Inspirations du Papillon” collection for

Westword’s Whiteout. Each dress comprises vintage scarves draped in the manner in which a sculptor would create an artwork. Lucero works in a three-dimensional manner, draping

the fabric on the dress form and contemplating every angle in order to enhance the lines of a woman’s body. Each piece in the Papillon collection is one of a kind. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts

from the University of Colorado and an associate’s degree in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Lucero brings art and fashion together in her signature style, which can

be described as playful, colorful, unpredictable and chic.

� iteout DesignerGabriel Medina/YOCISCO

Gabriel “Cisco” Medina, a Mexican-Italian designer from Denver, began the journey toward his dream in the summer of 2013, when he launched YOCISCO Underwear. YOCISCO entered the market with a

limited-edition brief featuring color blocking and a design of the Denver skyline. Cisco boldly became the face of the brand, pulling from his seventeen years of experience in underwear modeling. The brand was welcomed with open arms by consumers throughout the country. In early 2014, YOCISCO released a larger collection, using whimsical designs and colorful bamboo fabrics. Retailers across the country began to take notice. In just under two years in the market, YOCISCO has released its latest line — the

Most Wanted Collection — accompanied by a powerful, thought-provoking campaign. All YOCISCO underwear is made from bamboo fabric, which is moisture-wickening, odor-absorbing, uber-soft and

eco-friendly. Cisco believes that feeling confi dent and comfortable is sexy, and since underwear is the fi rst thing a man puts on, YOCISCO truly is “Where Sexy Starts.”

� iteout DesignerElyse Rainbolt/Elyse

2016 Design Contest WinnerElyse Rainbolt is a native of Ashland, Oregon, who now works and resides in Denver. She is a furrier

and designer and loves working with leather, fur and silk. Her textile design is inspired by Peter Max, the Beatles and Chris Jagger, who designed and hand-painted jackets for his brother, Mick Jagger, as well as John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix. Elyse is also inspired by Art Deco design, Busby Berkeley fi lms,

and music and the musicians who create it. She designs for full bands, solo musicians, fashionable audiophiles and exclusive boutiques.

� iteout DesignerAnne Fanganello/AnnaFesta

Born and raised in Denver, Anne Fanganello worked in the fashion industry in New York City for eighteen years. Her varied and extensive background includes positions with Zac Posen (COO), Nanette Lepore

(head of production, technical design and operations teams), Victoria’s Secret, Cynthia Steffe and more. She was intricately involved in producing New York runway shows as well as overseeing technical

design, fi tting, pattern-making and sewing techniques to perfect the collections for production and sale. Anne has moved back to Denver to create her own line of clothing for today’s real woman. The

AnnaFesta brand offers a curvy collection for women who want to feel confi dent in beautifully fi tting, curve-enhancing, high-quality, on-trend clothing. All garments are produced in Colorado and designed

with one-of-a-kind ‘FestaFit’ measurements to visually enhance the bust and derriere while slimming the waist. Anne is an advocate of positive body image, no matter what a woman’s shape or size. The team

motto at AnnaFesta: Love your body!

� iteout Style TeamHair By Makeup by

� iteout VIP food by

Nails by Models by

� iteout Photographer

Models by

Makeup by

Artopia SponsorsBEER, WINE & SPIRITS.

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