EMERGING DESIGNER

Jeanette Vargas

IN THIS FEATURE: Meet Jeanette Fashion Focus

fter Hours collection is for the business professional working woman that socializes after five o’clock. Afterhours has high quality silhouettes that emphasize sophistication in a woman. This line is elegance in a simplistic way that equals luxurious evening wear.

The Vargas tradition began with her parents, Maria Vargas and Casio Vargas, who observed products being sold in establishments such as Saks Fifth Ave, Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdales. Casio Vargas opened up his own factory named “Pleated Vargas”, and designed his own polyester, pleated skirts with designs, and lycra pants for women.

He sold his merchandise to small businesses in New York and New Jersey. Her mother had also worked together with her father assisting him with hemming his pleated skirts. When Jeanette was younger, she would observe how her father designed his clothes. When Jeanette was 7 years old, she used the sewing machine for the first time. Her father showed her how to put on an elastic waist on a pleated skirt. Jeanette always told her father, “One day, I want to grow up to be like you”. As she became older, she knew that fashion was going to be her career. Jeanette was inspired by what her parents had done in the fashion industry and she wanted to continue this family tradition after her father passed away in November 2005. She knew that fashion was in her and that’s why today, she is a graduate from Keiser University with a major in Fashion Design and Merchandise.