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The HP Designer Matchup Challenge Presented by Design Milk

08.15.12 | By
The HP Designer Matchup Challenge Presented by Design Milk

If you remember, last year during New York Fashion Week, I was asked by HP to use their TouchSmart PC to create my own designs in conjunction with the Project Runway Season 9 weekly challenges. It was really hard, but also a fun time. This year, I teamed up with HP to launch a brand new challenge: The HP Designer Matchup Challenge.

This year’s challenge pairs five designers with five bloggers to create a one-of-a-kind design to be revealed during New York Fashion Week 2012.

The other designer/blogger matchups in this challenge:
– Sarah Fox of Cursive Design (jewelry) and Design Crush
graypants (lighting) and NotMartha
Emily Henderson (interiors) and AphroChic
Goil Amornvivat and Tom Morbitzer (home) and Curbly

Be sure to follow them along as they do the same challenge.

The bloggers got to choose who they wanted to work with, and I decided to go outside my comfort zone and do something with a fashion designer. I thought it would be really fun to work with one of my favorite contemporary fashion and costume designers, Mila Hermanovski (remember her Friday Five?). I bet you thought I’d pick a furniture designer!

Mila is a Los Angeles-based designer and RISD graduate who worked at Calvin Klein, freelanced for a variety of design houses and also worked as a visual merchandiser. She is currently costuming major films and TV shows such as Dark Shadows, Tron: Legacy, Star Trek 2, and Glee as well as pursuing her own clothing line. She has shown her designs at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and Los Angeles Fashion Week. You might recognize her from Project Runway Season 7 and Project Runway All Stars. She’s opening up her online shop soon, too — to my wallet’s dismay.

Here are a few of my favorite looks from her Fall 2012 collection, which was inspired by Josef Albers and other West Coast conceptual painters:


Photos by Donnie Madden

So what exactly is the HP Designer Matchup Challenge and how does it work? Well, Mila Hermanovski is going to design and create a unique fashion creation based on some variables that you – the Design Milk readers – choose. Essentially, you will be a part of the design process.

Based on your answers to our poll questions below, Mila will create a few sketches using Adobe Photoshop CS6 on the HP TouchSmart PC, and then next week, YOU will vote on the final design! Then we’ll follow her through the process as she actually creates it. Totally fun, right?

Voting is only going to be open for 24 hours — now until 10 AM ET tomorrow August 16, 2012. So vote RIGHT NOW!

Voting is now closed. The readers have spoken! The majority of you would like Mila to create something inspired by the Bauhaus movement out of leather. What fun!

Stay tuned for Mila’s sketches coming on Monday morning.

This program is a collaboration with HP. All of the participants in the program will receive an HP TouchSmart PC and a trip to NYC for New York Fashion Week. I’ll attend some very fancy parties and be sure to let you know what everyone is wearing!

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.