A Tailored Place: 2015 Phoenix Fashion Week kicked off with a bang

Charmosa Swimwear’s collection was called Fireball, and that name about sums it up. Beat-heavy music by Shakira and Pitbull accented the red- and orange-hued bikinis, flowy sashays and lots of fringe.

Charmosa designer Neide Hall ended up winning the night’s award for Emerging Designer of the Year for the lifestyle category. Lifestyle was Thursday night’s classification of designer – evening wear and couture characterized Friday and Saturday, respectively.

I got to speak with Hall after the show about her big win.“I was very surprised,” she said. “It was a very tight competition… I’m very excited for 2016, what’s coming for me next.”The winning emerging designers get to be featured on retail network EVINE Live and win a $10,000 prize package of resources to help the brand. All emerging designers went through a 4-month designer bootcamp this year, a process Hall said was difficult but rewarding.“

They gave me a lot of guidance and made me open my eyes and really figure out how to sell,” Hall said. “As a designer, you love designing, but you mostly hate the business part… But I said, if I want to make this something, I really need to focus on my business part as well.”. - Downtown Devil