Few people, whether visitors or long-time residents, are likely to mistake Asheville for a sister city to the Big Apple. A sibling to Athens, Georgia or Ithaca, New York, sure. But not New York City unless you’re talking about some psychic extension of Brooklyn’s funky-trendy Williamsburg area. Then again, the Western Carolina mountain town does share an important commonality with its unlikely northern ally: Fashion.

    "It feels like a mini New York to me,” says leather-work artist Paul Olszewski, who established himself with fashion icon Anna Sui and dressed rockers David Bowie and Metallica before relocating to Asheville four years ago. “It's not as internationally diverse, but there are people here from all over the U.S.," he says of his new home.

Putting the ‘funk’ in functional
    As far as style, however, Olszewski likens Asheville more to another major urban center: London. "In New York, designers base their stuff on the retail stores and what they're buying," he notes, suggesting that in Asheville, like the U.K., artists are more likely to make crafts to please themselves.
    “Fashion in Asheville is more functional,” Olszewski reveals. “In New York it's more trendy.”
    "Functional" is a word that often surfaces in discussions about Asheville's unique sense of style. So does "hippie," though the tie dyes, peasant skirts and Baja sweaters of the early 1990s have given way to bamboo fibers, stretchy knits and retro band tees. A love of nature, holistic living, and indie music colors local street-wear.
    One boutique owner describes the town as a place where people wear jeans everywhere: A night on the town means trading hiking boots for heels. Vintage shops carry plenty of cache, supplementing second hand items with reconstructed pieces fashioned by rising designers armed with low-tech sewing machines. And, while stores stocked with Chip & Pepper, Penguin, and Diane von Furstenberg lines are increasingly visible in Asheville, a significant number of shoppers loyally name thrift shop Goodwill as their favorite store in annual newspaper reader polls.

One size doesn’t fit all
    Dressmaker R. Brooke Priddy left New York for Asheville in 2004, planning to stay just long enough for a business course. Instead, she ended up establishing her company, Ship to Shore.
    “When I was in New York, I was working on projects for other designers and galleries,” she recalls. “I was learning so much.”
    But life in a major urban center meant that working five jobs barely paid her bills and, as she explains, “I never saw my own ideas come to fruition.”
    These days, Priddy operates a studio in West Asheville, wholesaling to outfitters across the country as well as taking orders from local clientele. Her clingy, feminine gowns, often reversible or convertible, are commissioned by brides, rockers, and artistic-types alike.
    "My concept wasn't to have a streamlined, mass-produced product marketed all over the globe," the dressmaker says. "I wanted to stay independent and hand-made. That doesn't lend itself to showrooms and volume buyers." But it does lend itself to a town like Asheville, where fashionistas appreciate both deconstructed hemlines and high-concept patterns.
    In fact, Priddy names that passion for art as the main similarity she finds between the residents of New York City and Western North Carolina.
    "It's a lifestyle choice," she notes. "In Asheville, I can have time to be with my family. If you want to work on a bigger scale, be known nationally and participate in fashion week, then you have to be in a bigger city. If you want to build an empire, you may not want to move to Asheville."

Suited to a tee

    Graphic designer Milton Carter, who now calls Brooklyn, New York home, got his start in North Carolina. Born in the mountains, he began consigning t-shirts to a now-defunct gift shop on Lexington Avenue (Asheville’s retort to Greenwich Village).
    "When I lived in Asheville I played in punk bands and scraped by. Studio space was very affordable," he recalls. "I left Asheville in 1999. Truth is I followed a girl to New York and when our love affair ended, my love for the city did not."
    He adds, "If you grow up in a small town on the eastern seaboard, where else are you going to go?"

    While the appeal of bright lights and big city lures many to the fashionable world of New York, it's equally true that designers feel the pull of Asheville's rich crafts-oriented history. Fiber artists, jewelers, ceramists, furniture makers and glass blowers come to Western North Carolina from all over the country, drawn to institutions like the Penland School of Crafts or the John C. Campbell Folk School. Once introduced to Asheville's lively downtown, the rich music and theater scenes, and a creatively-inclined population (it's lovingly called AsheVegas for a reason), many designers stay.

    Even Carter, whose pieces have appeared in Jane, Teen Vogue, Nylon and Elle magazines, waxes sentimental.  "I feel like a poor southern boy trying to make it in the big city," he says. "New York is about knowing how to make it work for you ... but I'd like to live in Asheville again, someday."

<i>For more information on the artists in this story, visit www.paulolszewski.com, www.shiptoshoreshop.com, and www.miltoncarter.com.</i>

Looking for more Asheville fashion? Thanks in part to Web stores, independent designers are able to market their clothing and jewelry well beyond the local community. And while everyone may not necessarily target the Big Apple, these Asheville designers are certainly getting their unique creations out to the world:

• Children's clothier Baby Gassy Gooma sells to retailers in Canada, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Europe, New Zealand and 34 United States. Go to  HYPERLINK "http://www.babygassygooma.com" www.babygassygooma.com.
• Artist Alena Hennessey creates apparel, textiles and paintings. She supplies retailers in Scotland, New Zealand and 17 Unites States. Shop at www.alenahennessy.com.
• Women's and children's apparel and travel-wear company Little Eagle by Kaorico Ago retails in Asheville and throughout Japan. Visit www.little-eagle.net.
• Lael Alon designs hand-carved block-print apparel, available throughout North Carolina as well as in Georgia, Oregon and Washington and online at www.laelalon.com.
• Jeweler Jenn Fulton has a customer base in North and South Carolina, and online at www.jennsdesigns.net.