Twin Cities Designer Laura Fulk Connects Fashion and Community

If it hadn’t been for COVID-19’s worldwide freeze on fun, this weekend would have been the kickoff for Fashion Week Minnesota‘s spring edition. The biannual series of runway shows, panels, and shopping was originally scheduled for April 24‒May 2, 2020; the fall edition, set for September 24‒October 3, is still alive for now.

Apparel designer and developer Laura Fulk is one of the designers hit by FWMN’s cancellation—her runway show Afterglow, to be hosted by the Lab Theater, was part of the spring slate. Featuring the work of local visual artists on printed fabric, worked into Fulk’s designs, the show is dedicated to the memory of their friend Laura Weber, an artist and art therapist who passed away last November. Rescheduled now for FWMN’s fall edition, Afterglow will raise money for a scholarship in Weber’s name to her and Fulk’s alma mater, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Courtesy of Laura Fulk

Fulk describes herself more as an artist than as a fashion designer. “I like to make work that tells a story,” she says. “That’s maybe not so much wearable but is more like art wear. Kind of borders on costume or theatrics.” An apparel industry lifer and 17-year veteran with an MCAD degree in studio art, Fulk breathes the artistry of clothing design and the meticulousness of its construction. She is capable of a rare level of hyperfocus, envied by those of us with a million browser tabs open with articles and videos when we’re trying to write. Even before COVID-19, she could isolate herself from distractions and cut and sew for days, sometimes on deadline for shows. All-nighters are in her toolbox. Sound like Project Runway?

“It literally is!” she says. “That’s why I love that show—it does paint a good picture of what it’s like to sew something. If you don’t know how to sew, you assume it’s easy.” Not true for all of us. I don’t know how, and I also know from attempts at button repair that it’s impossible.

Courtesy of Laura Fulk

Fulk has worked producing apparel for tailors, one of her first jobs of this type being for a big-and-tall specialist where she worked on custom suits for Kevin Garnett in his days with the Timberwolves. She’s also been commissioned directly, producing outfits for bands (she mentioned Umami, Mayda, and Bella Koshka) and doing alterations for the Jonas Brothers when they were in the Twin Cities for the Final Four in 2019. Her credits also extend to the stage: she’s worked on costumes for God Save Gertrude, produced by Workhaus Collective, and Sandbox Theater’s The Horse, the Bird, the Monkey, and the Dancer. She’s done dozens of fashion shows, mostly around the Twin Cities, and her work has appeared in art galleries here and abroad.

When she was in her 20s, Fulk’s work caught the eye of some investors who wanted to start manufacturing a clothing line with her designs. She had a limited run, but the mass-market game wasn’t for her. “Not interested in starting an apparel business, and I’ve been there, done that,” she explains. “I’m more interested in using apparel to help people—that’s kind of what my passion these last number of years has molded into.”

Courtesy of Laura Fulk

At present, she works in apparel design for a major retailer while volunteering and mentoring locally, connecting art, fashion, and apparel to the community. Her roughly three years of volunteer work in the blind community influenced her work as she learned about the ways blindness can influence an individual’s approach to and experience with clothing. “With any kind of volunteering, you kind of end up getting more out of it than you put in, you know what I mean? I feel like everyone should be doing that, or using what they know to make change, to do good.”

Her day job involves helping develop apparel to function comfortably with adaptive equipment, such as wheelchairs. She had just started work on that project when her office had to clear out due to quarantine requirements, so now, like many of us, she’s working from home. “I consider myself an intro/extrovert. I’m kind of both,” she says. “One of my previous day jobs, I worked remotely. I worked from home for two years.” Her counterparts were overseas in China, so it made sense for her to keep late hours to communicate with them.

“Just because of those hours, it made it hard for me to leave the house. So I’m kind of used to this. . . . It’s like, ‘I’ve been here before, I know how to do this. I can be scrappy. I can figure it out.’ So even the weeks leading up to this, I’ve been trying to focus on sewing my collection, in addition to producing it . . . I’m definitely going to miss people, but thank God for technology, you know what I mean?”

Courtesy of Laura Fulk

Fulk’s close friend Laura Weber went on from her MCAD degree to get a master’s in art therapy from Adler Graduate School in Minnetonka. She interned at Huss Center for Recovery and then worked as a psychotherapist in St. Joseph Hospital’s addiction unit. She had recently transferred to M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center as a dependency counselor.

“She changed so many people’s lives just in the therapy world, in the art therapy world,” Fulk said. “She was very passionate about it . . . to be able to send a student to school. I wouldn’t have been able to go to college if I didn’t have a scholarship or financial help.”

Weber was one of Fulk’s earliest supporters in her fashion design career, in college and the years immediately after. Weber modeled some of Fulk’s early work and drove her to Chicago twice for Project Runway tryouts. Fulk thinks a fashion show to fundraise for a scholarship in Weber’s name fits the person she was. “She would have loved that. It’s using something you know for good,” Fulk said. “That was really the entire point in her memory.”

Courtesy of Laura Fulk

Weber’s death was still a pretty fresh wound for Fulk when she had the idea for the tribute. She had to have the application done in January, and when it was accepted, it left only three months for production for the entire show. She had been working every day on it until the pandemic forced the pause and reschedule.

While the worldwide culture freeze has been a blow to Fulk, she is looking forward to Afterglow being part of FWMN’s fall 2020 lineup. She advises anyone who wants to keep up with developments to follow the Fashion Week Minnesota site and to keep an eye on Fulk’s own site and the Lab Theater for updates about Afterglow specifically.