Apple of our Eye: Taryn Gerber

Shabby Apple 'All Aboard' Sketches by katieduncan on Polyvore

Have you ladies seen the 'All Aboard' line yet?  This new line was inspired by yesterday's travel and designed for today's bustling lifestyle.  We're pretty excited about it, so today we have a special treat for you!  We sat down with Taryn Gerber, designer of the 'All Aboard' line, to take you behind the scenes and show you what it's like to design for Shabby Apple!  

First of all, give us a little background on you- where you're from, where you live now, how you got into fashion design, etc.

Currently I’m a student at Purdue University studying photography, costume design, and art history, but I’m originally from a small town in northeastern Indiana.

I started designing dresses when I was about 12. I still remember the first dress I designed had faux fish scales all over it (I was a little obsessed with mermaids, and still am). My love for design continued into college where I attended Columbia College Chicago for one year, and then transferred to Purdue.

While I was in my sophomore year of school my roommate introduced me to Shabby Apple, and I instantly fell in love. I found out about their Emerging Designer’s Program during my junior year and decided to give it a shot. At this point of my life I was so used to turning designs into contests and not hearing anything in return that I was stunned when Shabby Apple contacted me telling me they loved my designs. That started my time and work with Shabby Apple and their Emerging Designer’s Program.

Other than design I absolutely love to travel! My sister and I are the best travel buddies, and love to find new adventures and travel to interesting places. I love learning about new cultures and languages and really seeing the people of the country I'm visiting.

Walk us through the design process- from the earliest ideas to production.

Well, I decided to start this collection around Christmas 2011. I was traveling around at the time, so a lot of my designing was done on a plane (I do some of my best work on planes), which now that I think about it probably played a part in the whole “travel” idea.

The next step was getting it approved by Shabby Apple. Once that was complete we moved into creating sample dresses. These are essentially 'prototypes' of what we want the final product to be. This is always a fun step because you can finally see your designs transform into actual pieces of clothing.

After all the samples are completed and okayed they get shipped off to the manufacturer, where they will find your fabrics and make another sample for approval. Once everything is correct, we are finally in business to mass-produce, deliver, and sell!

Phew, that sounds like a lot, but really it’s such a blast! 

We know the 'All Aboard' line has a vintage travel theme, but could you tell us more about your inspiration for the line? 

Sure! My inspiration for the line really came from the way women used to dress while traveling. They would have their hats, gloves, and gorgeous suitcases, and look put-together and polished as they climbed into an old train. There was something romantic and beautiful about that, and a lot of it had to do with the details. This collection really incorporates the vintage feel of the locomotive days with subtle details that can be found within every piece.

What is your favorite dress in the line?

Oh my, that’s such a hard question. I guess it would be cheating to say all of them, so I’d have to say… the Night Train dress. I just love all of the seam work, the color blocking, and the EXPOSED ZIPPER. I’m such a sucker for an exposed zipper! But it’s a pretty close race between a few of them.

What are some of your travel essentials?  Clothes, entertainment for the plane, whatever you have to have when you travel! 

Ah, all this travel talk really makes me want to go somewhere! Let’s see… I definitely have to have my camera! I can’t travel without it, and I usually try to take a film and digital camera along. I also really love my TOMS. They are lightweight and never give me blisters, so they are the best travel companions. Other than that my travel essentials vary depending on where I’m going and what I’ll be doing. 


Thanks Taryn!  Now that you know what it takes to be a fashion designer, are you interested in the Emerging Designers program?  Or do you just want to go shopping?