Jewels: Dazzling Fashions, Caught on Canvas

Cameron Levin, my young next-door neighbor, scored a great coup last night at Amber Lounge with the first showing of her elegant evening wear. The collection of a dozen or so gowns, titled "Jewels," received its premiere at a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

What makes this particular debut all the more impressive is Levin's collaboration with urban landscape painter Ethan Jack Harrington, who rendered each design in an oil painting. (Such a brilliant idea! You may see other designers copying this concept before long.) Levin was featured alongside a who's who of emerging local designers in a recent Seattle Magazine poll titled "Seamless in Seattle." Earlier this year she was part of the hoopla for Seattle Fashion Week. Her new collection shows both elegance and maturity, and should launch an impressive career.

Cornichon has also been following the work of Belltown artist and illustrator Ethan Jack Harrington. Patrons of Whisky Bar are familiar with his cityscapes and his risqué pix of girls in their underwear playing pinball machines or videogames. But there's a whimsical talent lurking beneath the boyish surface of his work; just check out his take on Paris in the snow, on his handsome website.

My favorite gown was Pearls, but my favorite painting (as a painting) was "The Fitting," which allows Harrington to compose two related figures, model and seamstress (Levin herself), in a natural setting. It's not quite Degas, but it comes close.