While a student at Eau Claire's Memorial High School, Erin Barr created high-style outfits out of secondhand clothing.
"Erin could go to Savers (thrift store), literally, and pick out old clothes and make herself look like she came off a runway in New York City," said Barr's mother, Anne Johnson of Eau Claire.
Now Barr is creating her own designs - and they actually are gracing New York's catwalks.
The 28-year-old Eau Claire native premiered her second collection for New York Fashion Week on Friday, Sept. 7, in New York City.
Fashion Week is an industry event that allows fashion designers or houses to showcase collections.
Barr has received attention from The New York Times, style.com, Women's Wear Daily and The Huffington Post.
"It's exciting that people are responding to the collection," Barr said.
Johnson credits Barr's recent success to her creativity.
"Erin is very artistic. She's always had a knack for art," Johnson said, noting Barr was known for her artwork as early as second grade, when a painting of hers was hung in the school superintendent's office.
After graduating from Memorial High School in 2001, Barr studied hair and makeup at the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis. Afterward she landed a job in New York City, where she's now lived for more than eight years.
"It was really a natural progression," Barr said of transitioning from hair and makeup to fashion design.
"I would do shows for Fashion Week (working as a hair and makeup artist) and photo shoots, and when I saw that side of it, I just really wanted more. I just said, 'What do I have to lose?' and went for it," she said.
Barr studied fashion design in London at Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design and then returned to New York to finish her degree at Parsons The New School for Design.
After interning at the Alexander Wang fashion design house and working as a design assistant at Cushnie Et Ochs, both in New York, Barr established her own label, called simply Erin Barr.
Barr said her background in hair and makeup helps her to see a more complete vision when designing apparel.
"I think it helps with the full picture, seeing the full transformation, an entire look," she said.
Barr's designs are angular without being too edgy and feminine with a faint tomboy feel - echoing the her first line's title, "An American Tomboy in Paris," which she presented in fall 2011. (That show was not affiliated with New York Fashion Week.)
Johnson wore one of her daughter's 2011 designs to Barr's wedding in May.
"I wore one of Erin's dresses from her very first line," Johnson said, "It was her spring collection. It was a simple black dress, but it was gorgeous."
Barr said her husband, painter Anton Zolotov, complements her creatively.
"(Zolotov's) paintings are extremely beautiful and have a sort of similarity to my own work in a way. He borrows a lot from the street as well, which I also do. I think we definitely bounce off one another," Barr said.
He even influenced her latest line. "He really got me into Frank Stella," Barr said, referring to the American abstract artist.
Her spring/summer 2013 collection that premiered at New York Fashion Week this month was inspired by both Stella and actress Marilyn Monroe, she said.
"It's sort of the meeting of two iconic characters in American history. I like this idea of hard and soft, the contrast of Frank Stella's graphic paintings versus behind-the-scenes Marilyn Monroe, the Marilyn after she's been on camera and she's gone back to her room and thrown on pants and a button-up shirt," Barr said.
Creating wearable designs is important to Barr.
"I usually take inspiration from women around me. You want to be able to look professional but still look sexy and chic and comfortable at the same time," Barr said.
"Erin wants people to be able to wear her clothes," Johnson agreed. "No matter where you come from, you don't need to come from New York City, you could be a teacher or you could be Michelle Obama, and you could wear her clothes."
Barr wants to eventually open a store of her own and even expand globally.
"I'd love to get the clothes available to people," Barr said. "They're not incredibly expensive, and I'd love to just see girls in the clothes."
In the high-fashion world, a single piece can cost thousands of dollars, but Barr's designs range from just $65 to hundreds of dollars.
That accessibility can be credited in part to Barr's Midwestern roots. Johnson recalled the way Barr dressed in high school: "She didn't care about price, didn't care about buying real expensive clothes, she just liked to be eclectic. She made herself look a little bit different, a little bit funky. That's when it all started."
Barr recalled her high school self too.
"I think I was actually voted best dressed in my high school yearbook at Memorial. I think I always just naturally did that, I always gravitated toward fashion and would always go to Savers, putting clothes together," Barr said.
"I would always go out to the bookstore and get fashion magazines and just go through them."
Despite now being a full-fledged New Yorker, Barr said she still loves Eau Claire.
"I sometimes dream about moving back. I actually come back quite often, three to five times a year. I like to go down to The Joynt," she said with a laugh, referring to the Water Street bar.
Still, Barr said it feels great to have come so far from her small-town start.
"It's great to accomplish something like this and to really see your dream coming to life," she said. "That's why I first went into hair and makeup because I really wanted to be a part of (the fashion industry) and explore that creative side.
"I think in New York I saw it was possible to do that, and that's what I always wanted to do, so I just went for it."