Fashion has consumed Shelly Court for as long as she can remember.

“My grandma lived a couple of blocks from us,” the 28-year-old designer remembers. “She had tons of things to play dress-up.”

Growing up in small town, Raymond, with six other siblings didn’t leave much else for fashion.

“I used to put on little fashion shows,” she recalls.

Along with fashion, Court was obsessed with architecture.

        

“I used to draw floor plans,” she explains. “It was a lot of dressing-up in grandma’s dresses and then rearranging the furniture.

‘’I actually wanted to be a model,” she laughs, recalling her idolization of model Kate Moss. “But I hadn’t yet developed into my five-foot-four-inch height.”

Fashion was only a dream to Court, never a career. Fresh out of high school, she pursued interior design, graduating from the two-year program at Lethbridge College.

Finding a position after graduation was easy but it left her loving the job but not so much the lifestyle.

“Living in Calgary felt like I never saw sunlight,” Court says. She clung to fashion to keep her sane. “I needed clothes that would make me happy.”

That was the moment she realized what she should have known five years ago. She made her way back to Lethbridge, and this time enrolled in the Fashion Design and Marketing program.

The two-year program opened a world of talent she didn’t know she had. After her first year in 2006, she took part in an international design competition offered by Goody products.

Competing in Atlanta, she won the competition and a three month internship for that summer.

“That internship was a big pat on my back saying, ‘You’re good enough to do this.’”

From then on, Court went full force, completing her fashion design diploma in 2007 with honours, despite becoming pregnant.

“Something happens when you’re pregnant and you think you can do anything,” Court laughs. “I felt like I really had to show that I could do everything and be pregnant!”

From there, she became an instructor working a year in interior design and three in the fashion program.

“I really never wanted to be an instructor,” she admits. “But I liked the idea of helping people.”

She learned she had a knack for teaching.

“It was mainly about seeing new, creative people and helping them realize how good they could be.”

Court’s students are part of what pushed her to start Lethbridge Fashion Week.

“There were a lot of designers that didn’t know what to do after they graduated,” Court explains. “I thought it would be a good platform to help them out.”

With the help of Facebook and her brother Andy, she lined up everything she needed.

“We contacted designers, and models, photographers, venues and sponsors,” she says. Despite the usual problems the Internet can cause, everything happened smoothly.

Lethbridge Fashion Week’s first show was a fall/winter line in 2007. Like any fashion event, big or small, things can be hectic.

“Always a zipper is broken or someone can’t find their outfit,” Court chuckles. “A shirt will usually get put on backwards too.”

Lethbridge Fashion Week has run for seven seasons with two shows each year, spring/summer and fall/winter.

But this year, the designer base just isn’t there.

“This year is tough. Most of the graduates who participated in the past have moved on from Lethbridge,” Court explains. “It’s kind of sad, because I did want to do it, but in a way it’s a good thing too.”

Even though Lethbridge Fashion Week won’t be happening this year, she is still on to bigger and better things.

“I’m going to apply everywhere in the world, and move to wherever will have me,” Court says. “I want to pursue styling, that’s the main thing.”
Court has her sights set on a fashion capitol, like London or New York. Though she’s shifted from design to styling she still sews every now and again, and has developed a passion for writing.

“I have a fashion blog,” she says. “It’s fashion oriented and is about having a billion different tastes and that’s OK.”

With so many different passions, Court still knows exactly what she wants.

“Being a stylist for a fashion magazine is my ultimate goal,” she says. “I’m just so over-consumed with fashion, I need to get it out!”

 

Photos: Above Left: Shelly Court looks over her creation on a mannequin to make adjustments. Above Right: Court sketches out her design before she does any sewing. Photos taken by Kayla Nash.