After Daniel Vosovic crawls out of his beau's bed in the morning, he's onto his next love affair: A much-adored coffeehouse across the street. It's not so much a problem (though he calls it "sick") as it is a solid, and legal, substitution for speed – which, right now, wouldn't be such a bad idea for the Grand Rapids native.
After releasing "Fashion Inside Out," the 27-year-old charmer half-jokingly suggests opening his new, larger studio – which will replace the one he recently shut down and temporarily moved to his New York City apartment – to accommodate production on his new fall-due line next door to the java hut. But, then, he cooks up a better idea: "I'll hire a barista," he kids.
Coffee cravings, though intense, don't come close to his fashion infatuation, which became publicly known when he nearly won season two of "Project Runway." After designing a sporty collection for NYLO Hotels, Vosovic decided to enlighten budding fashionistas with "Fashion Inside Out," a full-circle guide on design, from mere ideas to major marketing.
More an instructional book – and by no means high school textbook-y – the visually striking manual doesn't dish too much on Vosovic's "Project Runway" time. But, from what he writes, his mind was a prisoner (which means we can't even begin to fathom what Martha Stewart went through).
"For a creative person, I think it's very, very draining," he admits, revealing he works better when he can flip through a magazine or even click on some silly TV show. When he recently spoke to students at Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, he told them: "Five or six years ago, I finally realized that sitting in the park with a cup of coffee and a sketch book is working."
Coffee – of course.
Paper, pencils, erasers – none of it matters without an imagination. And Vosovic knows that. But from a young age he'd always doodle, later embracing painting and sculpture, and eventually registering for classes at the Public Museum of Grand Rapids. He credits the conservative town, where he lived until he moved to Lowell at 10, on its strong art community.
"I think I look back at my time in Grand Rapids with rose-colored glasses. There was always this desire to get out of a small town," he says, lamenting being only an hour away from the beach and missing the extreme seasonal changes, "and I know that's what drove me to go into fashion." He moved to New York at 20 and currently lives with four Michigan pals. "There was no diversity in my town," he continues, "and when I go back there it's a shock – it takes me a definite few days to adjust."
But it didn't take him long to turn his design dreams into a reality. At just 24, he was one of 16 contestants competing on "Project Runway," but to those who knew little Vosovic, they'd hardly be fazed. He was always a trendy kid – "considering the location," he quips, noting the local mall was really the only clothes-shopping option.
Kudos to his older sister, he says, for passing on the hip-and-cool knack, which Vosovic inherited in middle school when he became the first student to tight-roll his pants and sport the spiky side-haircut. You'd never catch him in baggy jeans; he was the cute trousers kind. "Oh, yeah, we're bringing it back – and pictures are not coming out," he teases. "Even though I know they exist."
And, soon, so will his first collection, which was put on hold while he pursued a few side jobs, including charity work and "Fashion Inside Out," which he stopped in Grand Rapids the day after Thanksgiving to promote. The line's been a quiet project, and over the last two years he's fine-tuned and tailored it – or, as he says, doing "all the boring stuff that is boring to talk about in an interview."
The collection sounds far from blah, though. He didn't say much (though he promises he'd touch base with us again in six months, when he plans on rolling it out), but he did toss us a teaser: "It's going to be very edited, it's going to be very tight and it's going to be quintessentially Daniel."
What more could we ask for?
