Sophie attended Parsons School of Design after Dickinson for a second B.A., But due to her liberal-arts background she had a more diverse repertoire than the usual Parsons student. “Vogue was never my Bible,” she asserts.

By Sherri Kimmel

Soho in the summer is not a pretty place. Bags of garbage line the curbs, and the air is unpleasantly arresting.

Open the worn door of an apartment building right across from the rock venue, The Knitting Factory, and huff up several flights of darkened stairs. As you make your way, the voice of Sophie Simmons ’94 floats down to you. “Only one more flight to go.”

Waiting in the doorway of a spacious loft with loads of windows and light is the striking Sophie—so tall, so thin, so blonde that your first thought is, “She’s a fashion model, not a fashion designer.”

Model, she was. Designer and co-owner of the new studio, Thread, she is.

Sophie moves gracefully around the loft studio she shares with business partner Beth Blake, gesturing toward the rack of samples she has created for their line of bridesmaids’ dresses. This is their niche in the contentious world of fashion.

While frequently attending weddings, Sophie had noticed the stodginess and lack of versatility of attendants’ dresses. Being a bridesmaid can be annoying when one shells out considerable money for a dress that looks like a bag of velvet. “I want to make being a bridesmaid more fun,” says Simmons. Thread offers dresses in two fabrics and two styles. Simmons typifies them as “girly but sophisticated. We’re going for the modern image of the bridesmaid.

“We use modern colors and fabrics, but have the attention to detail [found in vintage clothes],” she adds. Sophie designs the dresses, while Beth creates the accessories. Simmons frequents antique fairs to observe timeless styles and quality tailoring. “My clothing is not trendy. I’m not a fickle follower of fashion.”

The partners hope to gain exposure with an ad that ran in Martha Stewart Living in October. Instead of booking a booth in a trade show or pleading with Macy’s to carry their dresses, Blake and Simmons are offering their fashions on line for a price of $225-$360. The styles, fitting and ordering instructions appear on their Web site at <threaddesign.com>. Once an order comes in, Blake and Simmons hire a sewer who specializes in the type of fabric ordered, whether it be chiffon or knit.

After managing a store for 18 months for designer Jill Anderson, Simmons felt ready this summer to strike out on her own. “Jill is my fairy godmother, always there to help. She allows me to feel safe, yet adventurous. Simmons likes Anderson’s approach, dressing “real” women, such as teachers, architects and artists, who have all types of bodies. Other designers with whom she has worked, such as Isaac Mizrahi and Cynthia Rowley, dress the rich, the famous, and the perfectly starved.

Simmons met many members of “the velvet Mafia,” as she calls the name designers, when she came to New York to gain a second bachelor’s degree, a BFA from Parsons School of Design. Parsons, from which she graduated in 1998, was a “fashion bootcamp” for the first two years. But it taught her the intricacies of the trade. Through course work and modeling, she met denizens of the houses of couture.

She could have pursued designing for the likes of J. Crew or the Gap, “but that was too far away from art.” Or she could have been a button or a zipper girl for a major designer, toiling away at small details for a few years while awaiting a break. “But I wanted to design patterns, pick the fabrics, and watch a person walk out the door in my fashions.” Her fashion philosophy is that “women want a sportswear fit in luxury fabric.”

Still, Simmons is occasionally called upon to serve more flamboyant purposes, recently designing a turquoise vinyl corset for a photo shoot of a TV star. Her subject? The size-32 star of The Practice, Camryn Manheim.

Reared in Paris and London, Simmons gained her fashion sense early on, honing it during the four years she lived in London. “That is where I started to fall in love with clothing. The luxury of fabrics got me really excited.” At the same time, she began taking painting classes and delving into art.

At 16, she moved to Washington, D.C., to live with her father. Dickinson was a close by and comfortable setting for college. Simmons studied art history until her senior year, when she switched to studio art with the encouragement of professors Ward Davenny and Barbara Diduk. “My last year at Dickinson was very fruitful. I painted more than 60 paintings. There’s no way I could do so much if there was not someone behind me saying, ‘You’re great.’ ”

Attending Dickinson also made her capable of her task at hand, writing a small business plan that she was to present Oct. 15 to a small group of investors. “Had I gone only to an art school I wouldn’t have the writing skills to do this.” The college also imbued her with the philosophy that she could try anything. “You don’t know if you’ll like chemistry ’til you try it. And I know what studying is, what going to the library is.”

This catholic experience helps her to realize her future is not fixed. She loves New York, coping with the not-so-pretty parts by thinking, “I won’t be here forever. I may get my master’s and teach [elsewhere]. I don’t have to do just one thing the rest of my life.”

This article appeared in the fall 1999 issue of Dickinson Magazine.