Fashion designer calls Fargo the birthplace of her career

“Midwest” sounds much fancier when Christelle Dominique says it with her Haitian-French accent.

The 29-year-old Haitian-born fashion designer travels between her home country, Miami and New York, but she calls Fargo the birthplace of her career.

ADVERTISEMENT“As far as I’m concerned, I’m a Midwest designer–that’s where it all started. Without even noticing, when people ask where I’m from, I say the Midwest,” Dominique says. “I’m pretty sure if I had stayed in New York, I wouldn’t have become a designer because I would’ve been discouraged at some point because there are so many other designers.”

Dominique has shown her designs at Atlanta and Miami Fashion Weeks and on pageant stages, creating 42 gowns for the 2014 Miss Haiti competition, in addition to custom dresses for her growing clientele.

But she started here, in Fargo, first showing her sketches at a party.

Dominique moved to Fargo from New York City in 2008 to attend Minnesota State University Moorhead for marketing. She also took apparel design and sewing classes at North Dakota State University, and after encouragement from friends, showed her sketches under the name Mejeanne Couture for the first time.

The viewing party motivated Dominique to pursue fashion design, and six months later, Mejeanne Couture dresses debuted on a runway in Haiti. Back in Fargo, LOT 2029 carried Dominique’s ready-to-wear line and models wore her dresses at multiple Plains Art Museum spring galas.

“Going to college in developing towns like Fargo and Moorhead, it gave me more opportunities to expose my work. People, to some extent, knew me,” she says. “It gave me fuel and drive to pursue and grab other opportunities elsewhere.”

After graduating in 2011, Dominique stayed in Fargo for two years before starting her travel-centric life that keeps her in airplanes from Haiti to Miami and New York.

“If I were to call a place home, I can’t think of any right now because I haven’t been staying anywhere specific in the past years,” she says. “I became a nomad. That’s the perfect explanation.”

Right now, she’s living in New York City, spending hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for inspiration, visiting old friends and designing and sewing dresses.

To those who know her well, Dominique’s career is unsurprising. Her business partner, Gerard E. Beaubrun, says her entry into the fashion world was meant to happen. Beaubrun, of Minneapolis, is Mejeanne Couture’s e-commerce strategist and one of Dominique’s closest confidants. The duo met more than 15 years ago in Haiti.

“Christelle is a truly fashionable being,” he says. “Most people wouldn’t and couldn’t imagine how far she is willing to go to satisfy her customers and how much she cares about them. She often labors all the way to dawn in order to perfect a dress.”

Her sewing marathons have been well-known among her friends for years. Kyla Gradin, of Fargo, remembers visiting Dominique only to be told she’d be busy until at least the next day. Gradin, Miss North Dakota United States 2013, modeled for Dominique and wore one of her designs at the Miss North Dakota pageant.

photo:formal dresses

“I’d go to her house and she’d be hand-stitching every bead on a dress telling me she wouldn’t be sleeping,” Gradin says. “Her work ethic is something I admire. She’s so personable and very driven. You want to wear her designs.”

Although she started with custom special occasion dresses, Dominique added bridal gowns to her lineup two years ago. Each dress takes three to four months to make, and although she hires seamstresses, Dominique likes to do much of the work herself.

“It’s like a baby. You don’t want to leave your baby with just anybody. Sometimes I’m so scared of letting someone else take care of things I take care of,” she says, adding that she hopes to be able to let go and focus on the design.

The bridalwear garnered attention in Haiti, and Dominique was named Haiti’s Bridal Destination Manager for Caribbean Bride magazine, a destination wedding publication and company that serves the Caribbean and Mexico. She says the job satisfies both her marketing mind and love of fashion.

“They’re really trying to penetrate the Haitian market, and that’s where I come in,” Dominique says.

Mejeanne Couture will launch custom men’s suits soon in response to client requests for full bridal party attire. Beaubrun will oversee suit design to ensure it complements the bridal gowns. He admits the addition is a personal gain, too, saying that like Christelle’s dresses, the suits will provide men with an opportunity to own custom clothing.

For custom dresses, clients contact Mejeanne Couture through its website,www.marieprom.co.uk, and share dress desires, body measurements and other information. Dominique then works with each client to design her dream dress. She’s created more than 45 dresses in the past few years.

The process will improve, though, with a smartphone app that will walk clients through the custom design process and make it more accessible.

“I don’t do mass production. I do custom orders. I think people like the idea that nobody else has their dress,” Dominique says. “We’re developing an app around that idea, giving the public the liberty to make their own dress.”

Mejeanne Couture dressed more clients in the first four months of this year than in all of 2014, and Dominique maintains that it wouldn’t be possible if her career had begun anywhere besides Fargo.

“I love Fargo for that. The people believed in me.” she says. “When they see someone really trying and doing, they give them a chance.”