Nik Star Designs, led by Nekia Whitfield, customizes unique fashion pieces, focusing on inclusivity and creativity for all women.
DES MOINES, Iowa — It’s that time of the year when people may be thinking about homecoming dresses, but for one local designer, now is the time she starts getting ready for prom.
Nik Star Designs handmakes customizable, unique pieces for everything from prom to homecoming, or brides to birthdays.
Located on the second floor of Mainframe Studios, a sewing machine is constantly turning, and ideas are always being stitched together.
Nik Star Designs works thread by thread to handmake fashion, so whoever is wearing its clothes feels their best.
“I saw a gap from a lot of different sized women, and so I get to serve that community now,” said Nekia Whitfield, the owner of Nik Star Designs.
Whitfield began following her passion 11 years ago not by threading and needling but instead buying and selling clothes.
“I didn’t like how it made me feel,” Whitfield said. “I didn’t like how it made my clients feel either because I felt like I was missing sizing options and maybe some design details that they didn’t think about that they wanted to incorporate. So then I kind of nixed that idea, and I went straight into fully custom.”
Whitfield says being in the fully custom space now let’s creativity shine for everyone who walks in her door.
“I always like to meet women where they’re at,” Whitfield said. “A lot of people say, ‘Oh, do you design for petite, or do you design for plus size?’ I design for women, so it doesn’t matter where you are size wise, I’m trying to meet you where you’re at.”
Whitfield ships most of her fabric from New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, making everything from prom dresses to wedding dresses, and most recently, finishing up a project for an adaptive fashion show.
“Deb is in a wheelchair sometimes, so I wanted it to be accessible for her as well. So we’re going to go the route of making the two pieces, but then when she has them on together, it looks like one and it acts like two pieces,” Whitfield said.
The unifying doesn’t stop there; Whitfield says collaboration and making women feel their best is at the center of everything.
“It was really nice to collab and kind of think of fashion in a different way, more on the functional side, and then also on what the outer appearance is going to look like,” Whitfield said.
11 years of passion is shining through, one thread at a time.
“I think my biggest ‘Why?’ was because I didn’t see a lot of people that either look like me or had the same kind of creative process as me,” Whitfield said. “I really enjoyed throughout this time getting to share my gifts with other people too, and kind of help foster the gifts that are in them.”
Whitfield is currently working on pieces for her own fashion show, what she calls an edgy bridal show, happening on November 6th.
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