Fashioning the Future in New Orleans
It was 1975 in Baton Rouge, La., and-5 year-old Suzanne Perron was already on a career track that would eventually land her in New York, where she would work for 13 years under top fashion designers. The precocious child spent her time studying, dancing, drawing ... and sewing. When her mother would pick her up at the end of a school day, Suzanne would beg her to go to local fabric or thrift shops. Her work ethic grew, and her school days were packed, she says, but she would still find time later in high school to participate in the Miss Louisiana pageant. “It was fun to make and wear an evening gown and to dance classical ballet for talent,” Perron says. “I studied ballet very seriously from 10 years old through college.”
In the early 1990s, after attending—and graduating magna cum laude from—Louisiana State University, she made the leap to New York, where she attended the Fashion Institute of Technology. There she won the Bill Blass Award as “Outstanding Graduate.” She knew that the competition for a job would still be stiff, but “it was God’s providence,” she says, that during an Institute class she ran into top designer Carolina Herrera. Herrera encouraged her to apply for a position with her company, and Perron was off and running. She subsequently worked with other designers, and after several years was invited to join designer Vera Wang as head draper, where she helped dress actors like Uma Thurman, Charlize Theron, and Jennifer Lopez.
“Though ‘intoxicating’ may be a good word for working in the industry, it is almost like an addiction,” Perron says. “The more great work I would do, the more the designer I was working for would want, and the more I would want out of myself.
“When fashion is your job and passion and you find such creative satisfaction in your work, you get completely engrossed. The hours do spiral out of control. Partly because of the expectations of your employer, and partly because of the expectations you put on yourself.”
In the early 1990s, after attending—and graduating magna cum laude from—Louisiana State University, she made the leap to New York, where she attended the Fashion Institute of Technology. There she won the Bill Blass Award as “Outstanding Graduate.” She knew that the competition for a job would still be stiff, but “it was God’s providence,” she says, that during an Institute class she ran into top designer Carolina Herrera. Herrera encouraged her to apply for a position with her company, and Perron was off and running. She subsequently worked with other designers, and after several years was invited to join designer Vera Wang as head draper, where she helped dress actors like Uma Thurman, Charlize Theron, and Jennifer Lopez.
“Though ‘intoxicating’ may be a good word for working in the industry, it is almost like an addiction,” Perron says. “The more great work I would do, the more the designer I was working for would want, and the more I would want out of myself.
“When fashion is your job and passion and you find such creative satisfaction in your work, you get completely engrossed. The hours do spiral out of control. Partly because of the expectations of your employer, and partly because of the expectations you put on yourself.”
Seeking God in the Big Apple
Perron’s parents reared her as an Episcopalian, but she had stopped going to church after attending in New York. Then, in the summer of 2001, a friend encouraged her to visit Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA). “When Tim Keller preached the gospel,” she says, “it came alive.”
A few weeks after her first visit to Redeemer, the World Trade Center towers collapsed. It was the first of two cataclysmic events that would have a powerful effect on Perron’s life. At Redeemer she saw other professionals from all walks of life and many spiritual backgrounds. “You can go to Redeemer and you can not be a Christian and listen to that sermon and be completely engaged,” she told The New York Times last year.
But coming to an understanding of God’s grace, and of who she was in Christ, changed everything for her, Perron says. “Life was so much more enjoyable. Knowing that I am the vessel for God’s gifts, my role is to do His work, to use His gifts to the fullest. It is by God’s grace that I have accomplished what I have and that I have the skill and talent to do what I do. I can’t be arrogant or pompous—I give it up to Him.”
It was a group of Redeemer women meeting for Bible study, though, who really grabbed Perron. They were a talented bunch, and Perron gravitated to them immediately. The designer, ballet dancer, pianist, opera singer, actress, and opera coach met faithfully. “When we met,” Perron says, “we got right down to business, no histories necessary. And I remember that we prayed so often about what was next for me.”
Talking about those women now brings tears of gratitude. Because of the comfort and support that came from that group of women, Perron was able to see—and was unable to avoid—the next big step. “It was so clear: God has had me on this path whether I wanted to do it or not. I’m thinking, ‘Here I am working for Vera Wang, but I’m supposed to be in New Orleans.’”
Renewing a City and an Industry
Perron says her return to Louisiana in 2005 became, in part, a desire to see the resurrection of a different New Orleans, one characterized for so many years by cronyism, corruption, and crummy schools. But there were practical concerns, too.
“I was ready to start my own business, but it was so expensive in New York.” As Forbes magazine recently put it, “her hometown of New Orleans—the city of oversized weddings, Carnival galas and debutante balls—would be the perfect place to launch [her business]. ‘It’s a culture where everyone dresses up and celebrates,’” Perron told the magazine. She thought the city’s brides and debutantes would flock to a local designer.
While her long-planned move South would occur on its own merits, there is no doubt that the trends of the big-city fashion industry had bothered Perron deeply, mirroring the concern of leaders of the industry. In fact, well-known designer Diane Von Furstenberg wrote recently that thin models are a “global fashion issue.”
“Girls were not specifically pressured to be thin,” Perron says. “It was just that the thinner you were, the more likely you were to get booked; it didn’t have to be said. It is just the way it is. Models just needed to be thin. It is degrading to women to idealize a prepubescent girl as the ideal. And it will take time for the industry to move away from ‘walking clothes hangers.’ The models will always be thin, but it has gotten to an extreme.
“My time with models was limited to the chaos of fashion week. I did not have input on model casting,” she says. “I would cringe at how thin girls were, and I mean girls, not women. They were 14-year-old ‘size zeros’ who were getting the wrong type of attention. This situation definitely helped motivate me to leave the industry and dress real women.”
For her shop in New Orleans, Perron had modest plans: Create custom bridal gowns. She would do the sewing herself. “But it all looked like it might fall apart the day Katrina hit New Orleans, two days before I had planned to move,” she says. “My dad was missing. [He later turned up safe.] I was faced with losing my livelihood, not even knowing if there was a life in New Orleans. That doesn’t mean I changed course. My last Sunday at Redeemer in New York, Keller had said, ‘The more God pulls you in, the more He sends you out,’ and I really knew it was time to go.”
Her modest Magazine Street shop, “Suzanne Perron New Orleans,” now sits in one of the few parts of New Orleans that is on the rebound, but its opening was delayed until mid-2006, almost a year later than planned.
Now, in early 2007, if you’re prepared to spend $5,000 for a Suzanne Perron original bridal gown (and that’s just to start), get in line outside the small shotgun house she’s converted to a simple, elegant shop. She already has a full pipeline of orders from brides and debutantes. Watching her work with French silk and Italian lace, a reporter understands why.
“I’m not looking to be cutting edge,” she says. “You want to be beautiful—fashionable, but somewhat timeless,” she told Forbes.
As she pins muslin around the impossibly slender waist of her mannequin, she says, “I look at a wedding dress like this and I am so glad that I can be part of an event like this wedding, and do it really well.” For those last-minute nips and tucks, she often accompanies her dresses to the weddings.
In New Orleans, she faces the constant challenge of dealing with an infrastructure still under reconstruction. Sometimes it’s as simple as finding the right spool of thread or piece of fabric. Perron is a good planner, though, and on a recent day the UPS man arrived not a minute too soon with a shipment from Italy, bearing a commodity that might have been available right up the street back in New York City.
Starting a small business has been challenging, but with the help of a New Orleans business partner, she has prevailed. “I have my moments of doubt, but there is constant affirmation here from within the church,” says Perron. “I run into people here who say, ‘You’re such an inspiration.’ It’s humbling how I’ve inspired people here—and in New York!”
Not Big … or Easy
New Orleans is two cities these days, and Easy Street doesn’t run through either of them. The city where Perron has set up shop is struggling for its survival. Ray Cannata, Perron’s pastor at the newly re-formed Redeemer Presbyterian Church, has a hopeful—and realistic--view of the new New Orleans.
“Redeemer itself is growing—we accepted 35 new members on a recent Sunday—but New Orleans is losing people across the board, whether it’s artists or white collar people,” said Cannata. “This city is struggling. All the optimism I have for it is not necessarily going to pan out.” (About 200,000 people live in the city, compared to half a million who lived there before Katrina.)
“But the people who have stayed are some of the most rugged people in the world, living in these conditions,” says Cannata. “Also, they’re people who are really interested in, and really love this city. They just couldn’t bear to leave it. And the ones who are coming, like Suzanne, are coming because they have a passion for a place like this that is unique. In many ways, for someone like Suzanne, New York can’t offer what New Orleans can, in terms of opportunity. The quality of people coming and staying is very high, and that bodes well for the city down the line.”
Cannata, a New York transplant, says, “It’s going to be slow. It’s the most corrupt city politically in the country, and it always has been. Things are going to change, though.
“New Orleans right now is a lot like second-century Rome, where you had this great plague, and the city cleared out and Christians moved in to go towards the pain and the need. A good bit of the growth of our church has been the unchurched, but some of it has also been Christian workers who are coming into the city, people like Suzanne who came here after the storm to see the place rebuilt. Where a lot of the rest of the country has kind of given up on New Orleans in a lot of ways, the church hasn’t and that’s going to change this place a lot. I really do have good hope that the Lord will do something very special here.”
Perron, who joined Redeemer New Orleans as it came back, firmly agrees: “I see New Orleans being resurrected through Christ’s love.”
Nat Belz is the associate editor of byFaith.
Perron’s parents reared her as an Episcopalian, but she had stopped going to church after attending in New York. Then, in the summer of 2001, a friend encouraged her to visit Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA). “When Tim Keller preached the gospel,” she says, “it came alive.”
A few weeks after her first visit to Redeemer, the World Trade Center towers collapsed. It was the first of two cataclysmic events that would have a powerful effect on Perron’s life. At Redeemer she saw other professionals from all walks of life and many spiritual backgrounds. “You can go to Redeemer and you can not be a Christian and listen to that sermon and be completely engaged,” she told The New York Times last year.
But coming to an understanding of God’s grace, and of who she was in Christ, changed everything for her, Perron says. “Life was so much more enjoyable. Knowing that I am the vessel for God’s gifts, my role is to do His work, to use His gifts to the fullest. It is by God’s grace that I have accomplished what I have and that I have the skill and talent to do what I do. I can’t be arrogant or pompous—I give it up to Him.”
It was a group of Redeemer women meeting for Bible study, though, who really grabbed Perron. They were a talented bunch, and Perron gravitated to them immediately. The designer, ballet dancer, pianist, opera singer, actress, and opera coach met faithfully. “When we met,” Perron says, “we got right down to business, no histories necessary. And I remember that we prayed so often about what was next for me.”
Talking about those women now brings tears of gratitude. Because of the comfort and support that came from that group of women, Perron was able to see—and was unable to avoid—the next big step. “It was so clear: God has had me on this path whether I wanted to do it or not. I’m thinking, ‘Here I am working for Vera Wang, but I’m supposed to be in New Orleans.’”
Renewing a City and an Industry
Perron says her return to Louisiana in 2005 became, in part, a desire to see the resurrection of a different New Orleans, one characterized for so many years by cronyism, corruption, and crummy schools. But there were practical concerns, too.
“I was ready to start my own business, but it was so expensive in New York.” As Forbes magazine recently put it, “her hometown of New Orleans—the city of oversized weddings, Carnival galas and debutante balls—would be the perfect place to launch [her business]. ‘It’s a culture where everyone dresses up and celebrates,’” Perron told the magazine. She thought the city’s brides and debutantes would flock to a local designer.
While her long-planned move South would occur on its own merits, there is no doubt that the trends of the big-city fashion industry had bothered Perron deeply, mirroring the concern of leaders of the industry. In fact, well-known designer Diane Von Furstenberg wrote recently that thin models are a “global fashion issue.”
“Girls were not specifically pressured to be thin,” Perron says. “It was just that the thinner you were, the more likely you were to get booked; it didn’t have to be said. It is just the way it is. Models just needed to be thin. It is degrading to women to idealize a prepubescent girl as the ideal. And it will take time for the industry to move away from ‘walking clothes hangers.’ The models will always be thin, but it has gotten to an extreme.
“My time with models was limited to the chaos of fashion week. I did not have input on model casting,” she says. “I would cringe at how thin girls were, and I mean girls, not women. They were 14-year-old ‘size zeros’ who were getting the wrong type of attention. This situation definitely helped motivate me to leave the industry and dress real women.”
For her shop in New Orleans, Perron had modest plans: Create custom bridal gowns. She would do the sewing herself. “But it all looked like it might fall apart the day Katrina hit New Orleans, two days before I had planned to move,” she says. “My dad was missing. [He later turned up safe.] I was faced with losing my livelihood, not even knowing if there was a life in New Orleans. That doesn’t mean I changed course. My last Sunday at Redeemer in New York, Keller had said, ‘The more God pulls you in, the more He sends you out,’ and I really knew it was time to go.”
Her modest Magazine Street shop, “Suzanne Perron New Orleans,” now sits in one of the few parts of New Orleans that is on the rebound, but its opening was delayed until mid-2006, almost a year later than planned.
Now, in early 2007, if you’re prepared to spend $5,000 for a Suzanne Perron original bridal gown (and that’s just to start), get in line outside the small shotgun house she’s converted to a simple, elegant shop. She already has a full pipeline of orders from brides and debutantes. Watching her work with French silk and Italian lace, a reporter understands why.
“I’m not looking to be cutting edge,” she says. “You want to be beautiful—fashionable, but somewhat timeless,” she told Forbes.
As she pins muslin around the impossibly slender waist of her mannequin, she says, “I look at a wedding dress like this and I am so glad that I can be part of an event like this wedding, and do it really well.” For those last-minute nips and tucks, she often accompanies her dresses to the weddings.
In New Orleans, she faces the constant challenge of dealing with an infrastructure still under reconstruction. Sometimes it’s as simple as finding the right spool of thread or piece of fabric. Perron is a good planner, though, and on a recent day the UPS man arrived not a minute too soon with a shipment from Italy, bearing a commodity that might have been available right up the street back in New York City.
Starting a small business has been challenging, but with the help of a New Orleans business partner, she has prevailed. “I have my moments of doubt, but there is constant affirmation here from within the church,” says Perron. “I run into people here who say, ‘You’re such an inspiration.’ It’s humbling how I’ve inspired people here—and in New York!”
Not Big … or Easy
New Orleans is two cities these days, and Easy Street doesn’t run through either of them. The city where Perron has set up shop is struggling for its survival. Ray Cannata, Perron’s pastor at the newly re-formed Redeemer Presbyterian Church, has a hopeful—and realistic--view of the new New Orleans.
“Redeemer itself is growing—we accepted 35 new members on a recent Sunday—but New Orleans is losing people across the board, whether it’s artists or white collar people,” said Cannata. “This city is struggling. All the optimism I have for it is not necessarily going to pan out.” (About 200,000 people live in the city, compared to half a million who lived there before Katrina.)
“But the people who have stayed are some of the most rugged people in the world, living in these conditions,” says Cannata. “Also, they’re people who are really interested in, and really love this city. They just couldn’t bear to leave it. And the ones who are coming, like Suzanne, are coming because they have a passion for a place like this that is unique. In many ways, for someone like Suzanne, New York can’t offer what New Orleans can, in terms of opportunity. The quality of people coming and staying is very high, and that bodes well for the city down the line.”
Cannata, a New York transplant, says, “It’s going to be slow. It’s the most corrupt city politically in the country, and it always has been. Things are going to change, though.
“New Orleans right now is a lot like second-century Rome, where you had this great plague, and the city cleared out and Christians moved in to go towards the pain and the need. A good bit of the growth of our church has been the unchurched, but some of it has also been Christian workers who are coming into the city, people like Suzanne who came here after the storm to see the place rebuilt. Where a lot of the rest of the country has kind of given up on New Orleans in a lot of ways, the church hasn’t and that’s going to change this place a lot. I really do have good hope that the Lord will do something very special here.”
Perron, who joined Redeemer New Orleans as it came back, firmly agrees: “I see New Orleans being resurrected through Christ’s love.”
Nat Belz is the associate editor of byFaith.
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