Derek Drake ~ Clothing Designer

Derek Drake came from a poor neighbourhood and found it difficult to work around that. First, he was expected to study subjects in school that would get him a "good job" while he was inclined towards the arts, drawing, and fashion.

He took jobs in the garment district for lousy wages and worse hours to pay for his education, existing on bread and scavanged leavings from grocery store garbage bins.

After graduation, he shopped his portfolio around to various fashion houses in hopes of getting hired on as...anything. But nobody was hiring. Desperate, he took a job with a theatre company designing and making costumes.

Although he hadn't considered this his road to success, his skills soon brought him acclaim within the theatre community and more successful thespians would commission the odd item from him for personal wear.

It was then that he was approached by Studio One Six, a company that had no big names, no sought-after properties, nothing but Lorenzo di Luca, and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Under their terms, he would design all the costumes for their projects, leaving the details of construction to a team he could either oversee or hire someone to run it to his standards, while utilizing studio resources to persue his dream of establishing his own line of clothing, and - eventually - earning the right to use the term "haute couture".

His first assignment was to design costumes for the surprise hit television show, "The Kronos Project". Through this he met Isabelle Demaris, his first celebrity fan and closest friend.

Derek Drake is now getting ready to present his first show in Paris in the spring, a ready-to-wear collection for fall of 2010, under his newly designed label.