EXCHANGE: Sterling man has designs on success

STERLING, Ill. (AP) - It's about what's inside, in more ways than one, for burgeoning clothing designer Apolinar Castillo.

The 27-year-old loves to create garments from scratch, and his six plus-sized models turned heads when they walked the runway wearing Apolinar Castillo Designs at the Drake Hotel in Chicago in February 2014.

But he'll also make alterations to your prom dress - albeit somewhat reluctantly.

"When you get something from the store, the factories have so much more machinery than we do," he said Wednesday in the classroom at Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts in Sterling. "I'll do it, and it'll look nice on the outside.

But on the inside? Sometimes, not so much.

"At the end of the day, I'm putting my name on that. You want it to look good."

Castillo has had his heart set on art since he began drawing and painting 20 years ago. While he was a senior at Sterling High School, he got a copy of Seventeen magazine in the mail. Chalking it up as a gag, he gave it to his sister, Lena.

But a few months after the first magazine arrived, he took a closer look.

"People always think of skinny models and very vapid-type things," Castillo said. "But in the magazine, they were being more inclusive and saying, if you're this body type, you might want to try this."

It piqued his interest, but he remained skeptical about fashion until a friend convinced him to watch t TV show "Project Runway," and he got a closer look at just how artistic the industry was.

"I was very skeptical," he said. "But my fear came from the fact that I didn't know what to expect. But not knowing what to expect was also what kept me going."

His original plan was to get a degree in accounting, then go back and get an art-related degree. After one semester focusing on accounting at Sauk Valley Community College, he went all in on art at the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago in 2009.

Unable to get enough loans for residency and to go full-time, he kept working in the Kroger Bakery, where he's worked since he was 19. He graduated in July 2013 and then took an internship with Rachel Allan, a prom- and pageant-wear design house.

Gabrielle Zwick, who graduated a semester before him, held a fashion show that fall, and then in October gave Castillo his first big break, inviting him to be one of five designers to show off his looks at the Drake Hotel.

From the moment he accepted the offer until the February show, he was at a sewing machine. He'd design dresses, redesign them in different colors. It was madness, he said.

"It was just nonstop sewing and ordering fabric," he said. "I was in here all the time."

If prep was a blur, the show itself was something even blurrier.

He was third in the five-designer lineup, following Zwick. Even though family and friends were there, and he got to use a couple of models he'd known for years, with each of Zwick's models' sashays and shantes, his heart pounded harder and harder.

"The worst part for me was walking out there and introducing myself and my line," he said.

After that, he helped models in and out of dresses, keeping their hairstyles as pristine as possible, and matching his jewelry sponsor's pieces to the right dresses.

"It was madness for a good 12 minutes," he said. "After all that work, you want to be sitting down and watching it happen."

He survived. He loved it. After the show wrapped up about 11, he and friends and family basked in the afterglow at his hotel afterward, eating pizza and watching a movie.

At the early hour of noon the next day, they had to clear out.

"I felt like I had a hangover," he said. "I had so much adrenaline going that when it was over, I had nothing left."

Still, he hung onto the magic as he walked through the hotel parking lot.

"I had like ... a high ... just from the fact that I'd just graduated college, done my first fashion show, had that chance," he said. "I was so grateful to have all these people willing to help me."

Castillo admits that, while it would likely be a sound business decision to move to the city, it might not be for him.

Besides, he just landed a job directing the activities at Regency Care in Sterling. He'll help residents paint and draw, or really any activity that uses artistic flair as therapy.

And shortly after the show, he began teaching sewing classes at Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts, which became another source of joy - eventually, after he figured out some things.

"Most of the students here are women my mom's age," he said, laughing. "Many of them have been sewing for 40 years, which is longer than I've been alive. It's a little bit unnerving."

But there are kids' classes, too. A whole different animal.

"With kids, you don't have to give them a reason - they're sponges; they soak it up," Castillo said. "With adults, you have to give them a reason. And that's something I had to learn."

He'd love to open a brick-and-mortar boutique someday, but in the meantime, he's doing most of his business online.

At least one colleague is certain he's bound for greatness. Somehow, he and Kady Knox-Andrzejewski, a Rock Falls High graduate who also graduated from ILIA, never met in Chicago. But they ended up working at Kroger together, and had plans to go into business together.

That is, until her plans changed, when she and her husband, Stefan, had their little girl, Aura. She's 1, so Kady's dream of designing apparel for music festival clothing - electronic music, specifically - is on hold.

So she's excited to live vicariously through Castillo.

"He doesn't give up," she said. "He's always happy and very friendly. He's always trying to help the next person."

For instance, when he can't do an alteration, he passes along Kady's number.

"You just really don't see that in the fashion world," she said. "He brings something completely different."

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Source: Sauk Valley News, http://bit.ly/1Jib0Ct