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Ebone Thornton found herself standing on a rooftop in Manhattan at Penthouse 45, just a few blocks away from Times Square, earlier this month.
The Prince George’s County, Maryland, native’s dream started when she first made an outfit for her teddy bear at five years old. Now, the 31-year-old mother is watching models walk the runway wearing designs she created.
“I recently did New York Fashion Week, which was truly the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Thornton said. “Well, I don’t want to say that. I have a child! But yeah, it really was a dream come true.”
As one of the few independent designers chosen to showcase her work in a runway show, Thornton made sure that all body types were represented.
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The models were of all different sizes, which Thornton said is important to her.
“Two was the smallest in women’s and the largest was a size 16, ” Thornton said. “A men’s small all the way up to a men’s 5X.”
Thornton’s “Sonny and Chelle” is named after her late father and mother.
“My mom is literally the sweetest and best woman I know. I am really grateful to be her daughter. It was a really hard time losing my father, and it was just me and her for a really long time,” she said. “She has always been a very big supporter of my dreams and whatever I want to do.”
The inspiration for Thornton’s collection was an anime from the 1990s called “Nana” that featured a girls punk band.
She said she wanted to bring light to the punk subculture, because she believes it connected marginalized groups, such as Black, Hispanic and Asian cultures.
“It’s way more than just wearing spikes and black clothes, it’s a truly life changing movement that you could be a part of,” Thornton said.
The clothes Thornton said she works primarily on are corsets, vests and shorts.
“If you were to see a business professional and a suit and tie, but let’s say they went through a garbage disposal or something like that,” Thornton joked. “I did a lot of deconstructions of original tailored suits, and I made a lot of them into vests.”
The Towson University graduate’s goal isn’t to sign an exclusive deal with a retailer. Instead she said her dream is to own a boutique.
“Something that would allow me to just create based off of what I love and what I’m feeling in the moment, something that could be passed down generationally,” Thornton said.
All though Thornton said she’s unsure if her nearly 2-year-old son, Ocean, would be into sewing and fashion in the future, she said she has a ton of nieces and nephews that she hopes will carry her legacy.
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