By Kim Bechtel
Beads, bottles and buttons are the inspiration behind University of Alabama student Amanda Perna’s unique clothing and accessories company, Couture Chaos, featuring handmade, recycled and vintage items.
Her talents and the encouragement of UA faculty helped Perna take second place in the UA Year of the Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Competition, held recently on campus.
Perna, a 21-year-old UA senior from Coral Springs, Fla., started her company in June 2006 using recycled and vintage materials and fabrics to make clothes, purses and jewelry.
“I was thrilled to place so high in such a great competition. Originally I was going to use a video that showcased my work on models, but found out the night before that I could not use models, so I just had to bring my clothes and accessories. It was hard work, but it definitely paid off,” said Perna.
One of her professors and now one of her mentors, Dr. Sue Parker of the UA College of Human Environmental Sciences, encouraged Perna to consider entrepreneurship. “Dr. Parker has been a major inspiration in my life. She inspired me to start my own company and encouraged me to partake in this competition. She told me that just because my company deals with the fashion industry doesn’t make me any less of a candidate than someone more business oriented.”
This summer, you might find Perna’s designs at fashion shows in New York. She interned last summer with Oscar de la Renta in New York City and she plans on having another internship under her belt to gain more experience in apparel design and the fashion industry before she graduates in December 2008.
“I attribute my work ethic to my mom and dad,” said Perna. “They are hard working and have always been over achievers.”
In her unusual designs, Perna uses the bottom of plastic bottles to make pendants for necklaces and for bracelets. “As a child, growing up in Florida, my mother ingrained in me that being environmentally conscious is very important,” she said.
“One day my family was discussing how plastic bottles are horrible for the environment. My dad cut the bottom off the plastic bottle and I knew just by looking at the shape of the bottom that I could recycle it and make a new use out of it.”
Her company consists of three people -- her mother, in charge of business affairs, Grant Ballard, a junior at UA, a merchandiser, and herself as designer and president.
“Other than using recycled materials, the asset that sets my company apart from so many others is my focus on the quality of my products,” she added.
A philosophy further distinguishing Perna’s designs is her focus on fashion as both art and self-expression. “I believe that clothes should make people feel beautiful and that they are a wearable work of art. They allow people to express themselves every day by what they wear,” she said.
The talented student actually discovered her entrepreneurial roots an early age when she began making accessories as a teenager. “I made denim purses out of old fabric around the house. My mom’s friends all loved them and they would buy them from me,” she recalled.
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