CARLOS CHAVEZ One-of-a-kind describes designer and his clothes

The Mexico native lives in Minneapolis, where he has a band of loyal customers.
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Carlos Chavez waits patiently for Sharon Stone to saunter down the red carpet in one of his dresses.
He's been waiting almost a lifetime. Since preschool, really, when he insisted his socks match his shorts. Chavez has always had a flair for fashion.
His mother taught him to sew and collaborated with Chavez on his earliest bell-bottoms and shirts with funky buttons. He honed his style selling men's clothing at West Coast department store Bullocks.
But instead of rushing to New York after college hoping for a big break, Chavez took a roundabout path. The Mexico native who grew up in Arizona fell in love with Minneapolis, while he visited the city on a Republic Airlines interview. He didn't get the job. But he did find work at a tailoring shop making custom suits. In the early 1980s, he set out on his own and built a successful custom-clothing business, catering to the small fraternity of Minnesota executives who can afford $2,000 suits.
Career turnaround
But impeccable as he appears in his own custom gray silk suit finished with three rectangular metal buttons that he picked up in Paris, Chavez confesses that suits are boring. He's always dreamed of designing women's couture. At age 45, it's starting to look like he might get his chance.
For the first time this year, Chavez is coming out with three collections of one-of-a-kind evening gowns. He's in the process of updating his Web site, Carlosjchavez.com, to showcase them. Miss Mexico recently wore one of his red silk crepe pleated gowns to the premiere of a Latino fashion magazine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He's starting to get calls from fashion editors. A friend in Los Angeles is trying to get Chavez in touch with some key stylists who dress the stars.
Perhaps most encouraging is the call from Neiman Marcus. A buyer expressed interest in having Chavez create a 10-piece collection for the posh store -- an opportunity most designers would lunge at. Chavez turned it down.
"Mass-produced clothing is not what I want to do," he says. "You don't go to a department store if you want to make an impression. I can make you a one-of-a-kind piece that will fit perfectly and make you feel your best."
Are you listening, Sharon?
In the spotlight
In the years since corporate America switched to khakis and golf shirts, Chavez's business has shifted from 90 percent male to nearly 90 percent female. Wives of clients and working women he'd been outfitting in suits started asking for frillier looks. Cambridge State Bank president and CEO Kim Erickson, a tough-to-fit 6-foot-1, was the first. She knew he could do silk blouses -- why not a ball gown? Now, she calls on Chavez for every black-tie occasion.
Then in 1999, the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS decided to turn its annual Twin Cities fund-raiser into a fashion show. Coordinator Pamela Diamond knew Chavez was making dresses by request and asked the designer to showcase a collection.
"I thought, 'This is the beginning,'" Chavez recalls. That first show, his designs were all over the place. Bias-cut dresses in a variety of colors. Full ball gowns with leather corsets. Each year for the DIFFA show, his work has become more refined and focused. Spring 2003 is all red with dramatic pleats. Fall is a focus on classic black velvet with intricate ribbon work over netting.
"His talent was there from the beginning," Diamond says. "I remember thinking, 'Where did you come from? And why aren't you being noticed by the world?"'
Happy with life
Chavez isn't about to start screaming for attention now. "I lay one brick at a time," he says. He relishes his life in Minneapolis and has no intention of moving. By day, he continues to serve his loyal custom clients. Equestrian outfits are nearly as big a business as suits. On the weekends, he sketches elegant gowns that he dreams will one day be worn by someone fabulous, like Sharon Stone. "She's confident in what she wears and loves the glamour of the '40s and '50s."
Just one catch: The movie star will have to pay for her Chavez original. "I'm not going to give it away. She's never going to see another gown like mine."