Meet Heather Narwid | Clothing designer and vintage clothing expert

We had the good fortune of connecting with Heather Narwid and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Heather, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor behind the success of my brand Sideshow Redesigns was having one solid, cohesive, high-quality idea that resonated to different customers for different reasons.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My creative endeavor/ brand Sideshow Redesigns is up-designing and re-designing vintage, high-quality secondhand and new clothing for men and women. My process involves the collage, assemblage, appliqué, sculpture, salvage and repair, improvement, and modernization of the garments. All are one-of-a-kind, and range from more ready-to-wear styles like my version of classic fancy western snap shirts, on up to avant garde wearable art pieces that go to Burning Man.

Garments are treated like a blank canvas and embellished, and/or are remade into more flattering, modern and wearable styles through sewing alteration.
I am appreciative of my artistic intuition. It has been strengthened and honed through the years. This intuitive eye shows me how to harmonize the random components that I use with style, humor and relevance. My work is getting easier and better, smoother and more effortless as I benefit from the years I have put in with this particular clothing line, since 2005.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

I currently live and work in Durango Colorado and adore it. When friends visit we go to artists studios and galleries like Studio & and Dryside Designs and go look at public art and wall murals. Musicians inspire me and I love stage wear, so seeing live, local music is also a must-do. I love restaurants, and am glad Durango has so many great spots with well-designed, interesting and historic interiors as well as lovely food.

The neighborhood where I live and work used to be a summer camp, and feels like the set from a Wes Anderson film so I do also love staying home and walking our river trails.

The designs and aesthetic of my work are heavily influenced by my Durango surroundings- the birds and wild animals around my home studio, the deep and complicated history of the area, Native American art, style and life both historic and contemporary, western geology and landscapes and the weather.

Classic fancy vintage western stage wear from the 1940s through ‘70s, rock and roll, punk culture, psychedelia and old-school tattoo designs are also commonly referenced in Sideshow Redesigns clothing.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The first big arts festival I did where my clothing was phenomenally received was Carbondale Mountain Fair in Carbondale, Colorado. Everyone who looked and bought had wonderfully supportive things to say, so that first festival I did there showed me very clearly in a concentrated way that my goods indeed had a great market, especially at arts/music festivals. MountainFair is put on by Carbondale Arts which is a truly powerful and holistic arts organization. I’m grateful to them for being so accommodating at MountainFair, and being so supportive of my designs.

Learned a lot from and am grateful for the general festival experience, too. This intense “festival effect” of having thousands of customers seeing and buying your work all in one weekend rather than the trickling-in of a retail location was eye-opening to me- getting all the feedback, seeing which pieces were super popular- the intensity and concentration of browsers and sales was very helpful in future planning of where to sell and realizing what designs were most popular.

Instagram: @sideshow411vintage