Design Philadelphia @ Joan Shepp

 Design Philadelphia at Joan Shepp Boutique

"Getting Dressed" with Artist Denise Fike
by Eun Han Jeon and Christy Lucca

Passersby stopped to get a glimpse of the Design Philadelphia event, Getting Dressed, held recently at the Joan Shepp Boutique. This event highlighted the talented abilities and creations of local artist, Denise Fike, and fashion designer, Bela Shehu. On a Saturday afternoon, Fike painted a model getting dressed in the boutique window. The model wore multiple designs from Shehu’s NINO Brand, along with over the top hats and accessories from Joan Shepp.

Bela Shehu is a young designer who serves as the head designer of her own NINO Brand and creative director and founder of SHEHU. She hires Drexel design students to assist and learn from her while fulfilling their co-op, and she also offered a design award for a fashion design student this year. Her NINO Brand collection features sophisticated and unusual silhouettes with a muted color palette. Denise Fike is one of Shehu’s good friends, and they work together on many projects and events. She enjoys capturing female forms, florals and fashion in her paintings.

At the Getting Dressed event, Fike illustrated life-size portraits of a model wearing the NINO Brand collection on large sheets of white fabric. After she finished, the black and white linear drawings were hung in the store window to be viewed onlookers from the sidewalk. The event brought attention to the two local artists, and it attracted customers to the store itself. Bela Shehu and Denise File are not very well known, but both possess extreme creative talent. It was inspiring to see their work recognized in Philadelphia.