Laura Bremer shares whimsical designs in first solo NY fashion show

Laura Bremer of Van Buren Township showcased her fashion line of eight designs over the Sept. 6 weekend at New York Fashion Week in her first solo fashion show.
Her whimsical brand is called Alaura.
Bremer, 31, upcycles items to create the designs, including vintage handmade quilts, bedsheets, window coverings, and fabrics she finds at garages sales, thrift stores, and on eBay.
She said some of the items are tattered and stained and she finds leaving the stains in place is charming, and makes her smile.
For this fashion show she turned napkins and tablecloths into a dress, window treatment and bed sheets into dresses, and a hand-stitched quilt into a jacket. Old costume jewelry is clustered together in one design and a vintage dickie and scarf in others.
The New York fashion show was put on the the Project Runway television show and was called “RISE NYFW” and was attended by people in the fashion industry, including photographers and reporters. She said she met people and made contacts in the industry.
She had done fashion shows with a partner in the past, but this was her first solo show.
Bremer is a self-taught sewist and has been costume designing for theatre, movies and clientele for more than ten years.
Bremer’s mother, Susan Simon Bremer, grew up in Belleville. Since 2012, Bremer has lived in the house that originally belonged to her grandfather, Drexel Simon, on Martinsville Road across from Riggs Park.
Her mother taught her to sew, beginning when she was in the sixth grade when she made a simple top for herself. Then she went on to home economics and learned more.
She graduated from Farmington High School and earned a degree in costuming from Oakland Community College and then a recreation therapy degree from Eastern Michigan University. She said she thought she could be an art therapist but when she graduated, she couldn’t find a job because she needed a mental health background.
So, she went into retail. But she always wanted to do fashion.
She worked for Anthropologie in Ann Arbor, which offered women’s clothes. She liked working in clothing and feeling the fabrics.
Bremer went back to college for a degree in aesthetics, thinking skin care would work.
She planned to get a patterning job and did work for a year in a company that is a sister to Toyota, designing car interiors. After COVID she was moved to another department and now works from home doing data entry.
But designing is her love and her goal is costume designing. She hopes to get a position in that field.
Meanwhile, she is considering entering the Belleville Area Council for the Arts community art show, which has a fabrics category.
To see more of her designs, her Instagram handle is @alaura_bremeralis.