Erin Healy's vibrantly colored, nature-inspired, breezy looks are a perfect visual statement of life among the salt marshes, beneath the Spanish moss-draped oaks and along the Atlantic Ocean. Growing up in Northeast Florida definitely has inspired her fashion sense and she hopes to return the favor by leading in infusion of local talent onto the fashion, arts, social and philanthropic scenes.
"I love nature," says Healy, who lives in Ponte Vedra Beach just south of Jacksonville. "I'm inspired by all the elements of the earth, its colors and textures and patterns."
Her designs typically are flowy, beach-friendly fashions that can be worn with casual sandals by day, then glammed up with a jeweled belt and pumps for a night out. They often include a surprising feature. A line of three white orchids adorn the back shoulder of a black sheath dress in her 2009 line. Her lines include silk cocktail dresses and ornate tops that can be part of an upscale, nighttime ensemble or worn with a pair of jeans.
Healy's looks have been described as "Coco Chanel meets Gwen Stefani," she said in a recent interview with Suite101.com. "Classy with a little edge." Her metallic, mohair-wool blend tunic was featured in the August 2008 issue of Lucky Magazine. Fashion-conscious celebrities including Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee Hartzler and America's Top Model winner Whitney Thompson have worn her designs. Thompson, who grew up in nearby Atlantic Beach and starred in one of Healy's biggest fashion shows yet, the annual Fashion Forward show hosted by the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville's tony Riverside area.
Self-Taught Shopping Fanatic
Healy first became enamored with fashion as a six-year-old with a sophistication beyond her years. By age 16, she was designing custom prom gowns for herself and her girlfriends. Mall fare seldom offered the style she had in mind, so often designed her own daily wear.
After high school, family commitments kept her from attending fashion design school. Undeterred, Healy became a student by proxy, ordering textbooks from the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design to teach herself to sketch. She connected with Northeast Florida tailors to learn pattern making, attended her first textile show in 2005 and debuted her first line in 2006.
Fashion With a Purpose
Careerwise, Healy's aim is "to put Northeast Florida on the fashion map," she says, noting that the Sunshine State's fashionistas should not have to trek southward to Miami in order for magazine cover couture. "I love Miami, but I love my hometown too and we've got a lot of undiscovered talent here." Among them: Susan Perrone, with whom Healy is collaborating to form Rossie Perrone Couture and create her 2010 line.
To that end, Healy often invites other local designers to show their lines in her shows. Featured designers have included Lauren Rossi, a University of Florida costume design graduate whose looks are inspired by fashions of the late 18th and 19th centuries.But Healy also has a more heartfelt goal.
"I love being able to do something artistic but also be able to give back to the community," she says, noting that her company, Erin Healy Designs, donates a portion of all sales to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital which her uncle Fred Gattis helped found with actor Danny Thomas. Proceeds from fashion shows at the Artistree Gallery - which have become a huge draw on the Northeast Florida social scene - also have benefitted Dreams Come True, a nonprofit organization that facilitates the dreams of youth battling life-threatening diseases. A recent show sent a child and family to Walt Disney World.
"Children's issues have always been close to my heart," says the mother of three. "To make a living doing something I love is wonderful. But being able to use what I love to improve the life of a child - that's true success to me."
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