*Update (Sep. 2, 2010, 11:01 p.m.): Simms was eliminated from the competition in the fourth episode. --- On July 29 at 9:00 p.m., all Quakers, Philadelphians and the rest of the world can watch Penn alumna and Philly native Kristin Haskin Simms at work on season eight of Lifetime TV’s Project Runway.
Simms will be one of seventeen fashion-designers to appear on next Thursday’s season premier.
Though the 1993 College graduate has always loved to paint, she said, “I never thought that an arts education would be beneficial to me because I was always thinking practically.” Instead, she focused on how she would make a living and majored in English.
“I never in my wildest dreams wanted to be a fashion designer,” she said.
After graduating, Simms worked for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association — a College Retirement Equities Fund in New York City. But when she “got sick of it” she began working for a graphic design firm as a temp.
Simms said her stint in graphic design showed her how to use art to make a living. After submitting a portfolio of freelance logos and paintings, she was admitted to the Rhode Island School of Design. In just three years, Simms graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in graphic design and was hired as a visiting professor at the University of Connecticut.
“I thought, I just graduated, what could I possibly teach anyone?” Simms said.
On weekends, Simms would travel close to 250-miles from Storrs, Connecticut to Philadelphia where she opened graphic design company Key Design. Her company has worked for several Philadelphia organizations including the Penn Bookstore.
One day, Simms was working on a postcard commemorating Martin Luther King Jr., and decided to print the design on a t-shirt. This was the first item of her fashion line, Strangefruit, which has since expanded to include other items of clothing and diverse textiles.
She also served as adjunct professor at Penn’s School of Design, Tyler University and Philadelphia University — where Jay McCarroll, Philly native and winner of season one of Project Runway, now teaches.
Simms was enjoying designing, and people were responding to it, so on a whim, she auditioned for season eight of Project Runway.
But when she was in college, “I had no idea what I wanted to do,” Simms said.
Did she at least dress well in college? “O.M.G.,” she said, laughing. “That’s all I have to say.”
Her college roommate disagreed.
Leila Graham-Willis, 1993 Wharton graduate, roomed with Simms for three years in what was then known as High Rise North, now Rodin College House.
“She had much better fashion sense than I,” Graham-Willis says. “She was always, ‘wear this, try that.’”
Simms’s favorite place to shop when at Penn was Urban Outfitters. Now, her favorite clothing store in Philadelphia is, “hands down,” Joan Shepp on 16th and Walnut streets.
What’s in the future for Simms? “Laying on the beach,” she said, explaining that she is currently on a family vacation.
The cast of Project Runway wrapped up shooting on Monday, July 19th. Simms described the experience as “one of the strangest things I’ve ever done.”
However, Strangefruit has a fall line, and Simms is working on a spring collection. She has also started making handbags, perhaps in an attempt to avoid the “media craze” and take it “one day at a time.”
