Lorain fashion designer celebrates 15 years in industry

LORAIN — Fifteen years ago, Jevon Terance jumped headfirst into his fashion endeavor. Now, the Lorain-based designer has gone from cutting out patterns on a pool table in his parents' basement to showing his newest collection at New York Fashion Week in three separate shows. "You dream of that stuff but you don't really know how it's going to go when you're just going," he said. "Because you're in a market just in Cleveland and Lorain, so you don't know how it's going to go. But I come from a basketball family, so you want to be confident in what you're doing … I was just going to always play hard and try to be the best on the court, so I put that into fashion." The influence of basketball isn't lost on Terance's 15-year collection, which includes a throwback to the Jordan 15s he wore in eighth grade. He remembers putting neon-yellow laces in the futuristic-looking sneakers, and it's been one of his favorite colors ever since. "It's a little different at that time in 1999 being in eighth grade just having fun with bright, bold colors," he said, standing in his boutique on Broadway. That neon yellow is the showstopper in a one-of-a-kind moto jacket, a fitted snakeskin-print dress, and complemented by a number of peach pieces including a ruffled dress with a deep V-neck and a coral men's trench coat. Less than a decade after he was lacing up Jordans with what's become a signature style, Terance was teaching himself to sew on a machine he received as a Christmas gift. From making pillows to deconstructing thrifted finds, he learned quickly how to make clothes he wanted to wear, he said. He started doing samples — unlined pieces — and one-off independent designs, not cohesive collections, he said. Looking back, he can find the nostalgia in those first pieces and initial shows, including the three years' worth of shows in Cleveland every weekend. "When I started designing, my family really didn't know a lot about the fashion industry," he said. "I feel like they really worried about me going to Cleveland a lot because a lot of my shows were in clubs, it would get late and, me being young, I'm like almost taking it bitter like, 'You guys really are not supporting this.' But I can see where the parents are coming from. … I'm going to the Flats, all these clubs, colleges, doing these fashion shows and that was every weekend for like three years straight." He didn't have a fashion mentor or formal training, he said, and there wasn't a lot of fashion in Lorain at the time. Other than an Ebony Fashion Fair tour stop at the Palace Theatre, everything was in Cleveland. And he started his brand in 2007 on a wave of proving people wrong, he said. "For me, it was like the sky's the limit because I could control whatever I was doing," he said. After four years of designing, Terance went to Virignia Marti for about six months, but traded finishing the formal schooling for opening his boutique on Broadway in the Palace Theatre-owned space near West Sixth Street. His time at Virginia Marti did instill some industry standards, including how to sew commercially, and to fully finish pieces rather than just make samples. Now, every piece he sends down the runway is ready to buy right off the model. Over the more than 20 personal shows presented in Lorain and Northeast Ohio, and participating in 400 to 500 across the country and internationally, Terance credits his wife, Mia Arredondo, with keeping everything organized, and jumping in to help despite juggling her own full-time job. She's been in the trenches right with him — late nights spent in the basement of the boutique finishing pieces until midnight, or sewing last-minute items in a New York City hotel room hours before their time slot. Now, after close to two decades of work, Terance's pieces are available in his Broadway boutique, online at jevonterance.com and at two showrooms: one in New York and one in Miami. And his tags have made their way onto Beyonce's former stylist, Cleveland Cavaliers players, directors and other celebrities. From a large show at Cleveland State University with 800 people in attendance in 2010, to a show at Oakwood Park's basketball court, to his third collection to go down the runway at New York Fashion Week this past weekend, Terance has worked to grow a brand that speaks for itself, he said. And his hometown isn't lost in the mix. The Lorain lighthouse appears on dresses, and the Lakeview Park fountain on the back of an airbrushed jeans jacket he's still finishing — but he doesn't have to shout the Rust Belt city out in each piece, he said. "I think they really enjoy the actual art of it, so I think it's not more so the place, I think it's the piece that's talking to them," he said. While trips to New York City or Los Angeles may tempt Terance to move to a bigger market, he has no plans of leaving the International City any time soon, he said. "The next 15 years is to keep growing the brand. More production, more units of each piece so people can buy it across the world. Do more shows internationally and grow the clientele locally as well as celebrity clientele. And if stores come out of that — naturally that may happen," he said. "I do want to do my own independent fashion show at some point in New York. That's a goal of mine to have creative control." And his flagship store will always be here, no matter what growth the next 15 years bring, he said. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.