Erin Fetherston sprinkles fairy dust all over your clothes

Erin Fetherston's dresses go from the runway to a strip mall near you

By Tina Chadha
Published: Dec 16, 2007

Everything about fashion designer Erin Fetherston is a bit precious. Her signature flirty dresses are inspired by fairytales and magic, she owns a Marie Antoinette-style apartment in Paris and she’s still really into hearts, stars, bunnies and birds.

But please don’t confuse her signature girliness for naivete or kookiness. Behind the bows, ruffles and eye-grazing bangs is a talented designer with a clear vision and a savvy business sense. Even though she’s only 26, Erin has already become a star of the fashion world. Her feminine party dresses are favorites of young “it” girls like Kirsten Dunst and Irina Lazareanu. But women in their 40s and 50s, including many a fashion editor, are also coveting her designs—Anna Wintour was even spotted in the front row of her Spring 2008 fashion show. Because of her cred with both demographics, Erin was a finalist for the 2007 CFDA/Vogue fashion awards. And last month she launched a capsule collection for retail giant Target, which has become the fairy godmother for women who can’t spend a $1000 on a frock, but want high fashion, too.

“I feel really passionate about this collection because I saw it as an opportunity to connect with a much larger audience and share a piece of my heart and universe with many,” says Erin. The 5-foot-11 statuesque blonde often says things like “piece of my heart” and “magical.”

Her whimsical attitude is working. Erin’s line was probably the most buzzed about of the Target Go collections, getting major props for actually looking like the designer’s runway looks. Weeks before her collection hit stores, bloggers uploaded sneak peek images of the line, and fashion lovers set alerts on their BlackBerrys to make sure they were the first to snag the coveted mini dresses, voluminous coats, satin jumpers and heart embellished-everythings.

“It plays to my youthful side,” says Erin. “There’s a very baby-doll chic feeling. It's like a little sister to the Erin Fetherston mainline collection.” And although the trend in fashion right now is moving towards a more tailored, structured silhouette, (even Erin’s Spring 2008 show was surprisingly sleek and sophisticated), she treats the baby-doll as a staple in her Target line. “The Erin Fetherston girl is always true to herself and her style,” she says, before advising, “It’s all about balance. Pair girly touches with something heavier to ground the look.”

Erin’s career didn’t rise from pixie dust. The San Francisco native moved to Paris in 2002 to attend Parsons School of Design. There she met and fell in love with her fiancé, artist Hedi Ferjani (“love at first sight,” of course), and began designing a hand-made couture collection which showed in the 2005 Couture Week in Paris. She soon switched to designing ready-to-wear and began working on her eponymous label.

“I use fashion as an avenue to express what I am identifying with,” explains Erin. “I take it the furthest it can go, like playing a character.” For her breakout Autumn/Winter 2006 runway collection, the character in mind was Wendy from Peter Pan. Ethereal, feminine dresses swayed down the runway and awoke every woman’s long-forgotten desire to be a princess. Soon after, Erin met photographer Ellen Von Unwerth and Kristen Dunst at a party. The three bonded over champagne and decided to make a short, artsy movie called Wendybird based on the clothes. Erin screened the film during her show. Art project or brilliant marketing tactic, it had fashion insiders talking. In Fall 2007, another famous friend, Zooey Deschanel, sang “Dream a little Dream” during her show.

To accompany her Target line, Erin’s made another movie, this time with Hedi, called Dollhouse. The film is a bit on the dark side, telling the story of a doll who uses tea parties and a game of dress up to get exactly what she wants, seemingly paralleling Erin’s life. The doll in the film wears a red dress—the same one Erin wears in the commercials promoting her Target line.

Currently, Erin has packed her atelier in Paris and moved to Manhattan. “New York is so manic—you can meet a lot of people and see a lot of things in a single day,” she says. “I look forward to settling in my new apartment and really taking advantage of all that the city has to offer.” The 3,555 square-foot loft she just bought is by New York standards the equivalent of owning a castle. And fittingly enough, it’s located in a building called the Sugar Warehouse.