Cheryl Shops

During our recent visit to New York in February for Fashion week and the Chicktopia 10 Social Influence Summit, TheFind caught up with emerging designer, Alyssa Nicole. Alyssa was one of the featured designers at the Chictopia Summit who treated the audience of fashion bloggers, retailers and media to a preview of her Spring 2010 collection. Alyssa's romantic whimsical designs caught our eye and we wanted to share her most recent collection with you. Read on to learn more about this youthful and talented designer.

Alyssa Nicole knew at an early age that she would persue a career as a fashion designer. She has been designing since she was 12 when she created her first line of handbags. Alyssa created her very first collection for Spring 2008 at age 16 when she primarily created custom designs and prom dresses. Alyssa's designs are available on her site AlyssaBird.com.

We interviewed Alyssa to find out a bit more about her most recent Spring 2010 collection and the inspiration behind it.

1. What inspired you to become a fashion designer?
Fashion design is my creative outlet. Every collection I have ever designed has a purpose or meaning behind it. When I realized that I could design a dresses from abstract concepts or emotions, I immediately became inspired to become a fashion designer.

2. What are your influences for this season's collection?
For this seasons collection my influences were Amanda Palmer and The Dresden Dolls, cupcakes, bike riding hipsters in SF, and punks.

3. Can you describe the collection for us?
My Spring 2010 collection is inspired by the evolution of my personal style. It is designed into 2 different segments. The "badass" segment is very edgy, with a punk flair to it and my "cupcake cute" segment is very romantic and sweet. The collection was inspired by two completely different concepts, but I used color to make the collection cohesive.

4. Describe the girl you are designing for.
The type of girl I imagine wearing my clothing is very outgoing and social,
fearless, open-minded, she would generally be interested many different genres of music and films, her passions would include art, vintage clothing, and classic films. I picture her having a very busy and upbeat lifestyle, like going out to lunch with girlfriends on her break from work, then going out for cocktails later that night. She has to be properly dressed for each occasion, so I try to design many different types of dresses to fit that lifestyle.

5. What do you love best about designing each collection?
The best part about designing collections is when a collection is completely finished and seeing how beautiful it all comes together after all the hard work I put into making it.

6. What is the worst thing about designing each collection?
There is nothing that I don't like about designing collections. I love every moment of it.

7. What is the one item every woman needs in the city?
One item every woman needs in the city is hand sanitizer. There are a lot of germs floating around public transportation.

8. What is the one item you can't live without?
One item I cannot live without is my cell phone, I have GPS on it. If it wasn't for having maps on my phone, I would be lost all the time.

9. Favorite shops in SF? LA? NY? or online?
My favorite shops are always Betsey Johnson, Marc by Marc Jacobs, and anywhere where I can find cute vintage clothing and hats!

10. What is in your handbag today?
Today in my handbag there is: A cell phone, keys, prescription glasses, vintage Raybans, ipod ear buds, a red pen, and black pen, hand sanitizer, lip gloss, lipsticks in 4 different shades of red, my business card holder, my wallet, receipts from Starbucks, and about 4 expired muni transfers.

Thank you to Alyssa Nicole for taking time to share her inspirations. You can see more from Alyssa Nicole at her website, AlyssaBird.com!

Content provided by TheFind in partnership with Cheryl Shops.