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FASHION FORWARD
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
A fashion designer who hails from Youngstown will showcase her line of women’s clothing in New York this week.
Ronnette Porch of Columbus, founder of Nia Grain, will be one of 42 emerging fashion designers to showcase at Plitzs New York City Fashion Week.
“It’s a big deal for potential exposure for my company, and I am extremely excited to even have this opportunity,” she said.
Porch and her business partner Brandon McKee create casual, club and evening wear and also high-end custom designs.
A North Side native and a 2003 graduate of The Rayen School, Porch is a self-taught seamstress whose interest in fashion design begin while in high school. She created clothing for style shows and parties, and even designed prom dresses.
Porch moved to Columbus shortly after graduating high school. She is a 2005 graduate of Technology Education College and a 2010 graduate of Regency Beauty Institute.
Porch founded Nia Grain in 2011.
She returned to Youngstown in 2012 to produce a fashion show. Last year, Nia Grain was one of the featured lines at Derby City Fashion Week in Louisville, Ky.
Showing her creations in New York has long been a goal of hers.
“It gives us the opportunity to get our high-caliber designs in front of a new audience of fashion movers and shakers, boutiques and celebrities,” she said.
Porch will show her line at 3:15 p.m. Thursday at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Midtown Manhattan. She will focus on her newest designs for spring-summer 2015 and will dress 15 models to walk the runway.
Her designs, she said, are characterized by bold prints, colors and shapes and timeless classics.
Plitzs New York City Fashion Week runs concurrently with New York Fashion Week (Sept. 4-11), which is one of the industry’s top events, but it is not affiliated with it.