[Interview] Candice Miller, Audience Winner at the 2024 Her Universe Fashion Show

[00:00:09] Hello, I'm Jenna with Portrait of a Fangirl and I'm here today with Candice, the audience winner from the Her Universe Fashion Show. Hi Candice! Hi, how are you doing? I'm doing great. It's excellent to meet you and congratulations on your win. Thank you so much.

[00:00:23] So was this your first Her Universe Fashion Show? It was not. I was actually in 2018. I also did a yarn design then too but it was Star Wars. Can you tell me about that one?

[00:00:33] Yeah, it was based on Mariah from Star Wars Rebels, so the Ahsoka Owl and it was a lot of green wool so it was very heavy. It was 20 pounds. Is wool your chosen fabric to work with?

[00:00:45] Fiber probably. No, not necessarily. I mean this is synthetic so it's nylon. A lot of the skirt is a wool blend, acrylic blend. It just depends on what you're making really. It's just that it was what I wanted for like the bulkiness of feathers for the skirt because

[00:01:00] it was out. Bird yarn? Now this is inspired by Dune. Can you tell me a little bit about this design and the title of it too? Yep, so my design is called Warrior Princess of Dune and it's based on the suit, well the

[00:01:16] suit of armor dress that Irle on wears at the end of the movie, so Florence Pugh's character as well as blending just the concept of armor with sandworms because sandworms have scales they're very hard to kill. So the armor crossover was really where I kind

[00:01:31] of came into the design and kind of went from there. How did you create the armor look? It's knitted scale mail and then the yarn purse that you see are actually crocheted crocodile

[00:01:43] stitch so it's kind of that dragon scale kind of look but I just wanted to kind of alternate them just because I do both so why not? I love that even your head piece is crocheted or ne? Oh I'm sorry!

[00:01:55] Okay let's see, even your head piece is crocheted. The head piece is actually macrame technically because it's knotted in the middle and then it's knotted again at the top and I had to glue each one around so it was a lot.

[00:02:08] And now Dune is a sci-fi hallmark, did you feel any pressure trying to live up to something so large in the fantasy world? Not really because only recently become that big and I've loved it since probably about

[00:02:21] 20 years ago so it's a lot of okay now everyone else is finally catching up and I have the honor of actually doing a Dune design because this was the second design

[00:02:30] I entered into the show, the first it got in obviously but it was just okay now I can show how much I love it and welcome to everybody else who loves it now so that's really what it meant to me.

[00:02:44] And how long did it take you from start to finish with this process to make this? I calculated about 154 hours roughly yeah I did make the skirt pretty fast because

[00:02:55] I could pattern it out and you can do half and once you know you have half you just copy it but yeah it was a lot of just sitting knitting or crocheting and just getting it done it's

[00:03:05] just forcing yourself so I've run through a lot of Hulu and Netflix and a lot of that a lot of shows with lots of dialogue. So this um the her universe fashion show has a pretty quick turnaround from entry to the show time correct?

[00:03:19] So did you feel any sort of crunch on a deadline trying to go from the design to the actual show? Not really because with yarn stuff you can't like I can't wait like I had to plan my time

[00:03:31] out pretty pretty like evenly so it was really just waiting on supplies so waiting on the scales to arrive waiting on the yarn to arrive um but yeah I couldn't you can't be so I can't be crocheting right up until the show because I would not finish.

[00:03:44] And you even have very unique Dune inspired accessories can you tell me a little bit about your accessories? Um yeah so I've got a Chris Knife necklace pendant I got it on Etsy because you know

[00:03:53] Etsy's awesome um and I have just more like armor looking stuff for ears I have some moons because there's two moons on Dune so I've got that going that yeah there's just a lot of like armory kind of pointy things going on.

[00:04:09] Now throughout this process did you hit any snags along the way? Just on the yarn. But I mean really it was just um I had to edit the bodice a lot just because this piece I

[00:04:23] mean as you can see it like it's like it will pull it down so there's a lot of just adjustment you have to make to get it to actually fit on your body.

[00:04:30] It's why also I model because I can just try it on and just keep trying it on and not have to worry about doing it on somebody else but um yeah I mean there wasn't really

[00:04:40] anything huge that happened except getting stuck in Atlanta for nine hours on Tuesday. That'll be a snack. That was the biggest snack probably and that was yeah I wasn't sure if I was going to make it but I did so.

[00:04:51] Can you take me back to that moment last night when you were announced as the audience winner? Um I was just in complete shock because I walked and I got backstage everyone was like you did great you did awesome I'm like I don't remember anything I just remember

[00:05:06] looking I remember concentrating very hard and I had practiced a lot so it was just oh good I didn't I didn't fall I didn't trip on my dress because you know it seemed like

[00:05:15] it was going to happen so it was just a lot of just I don't know I'm still I'm still processing basically. Right it's it's a huge moment and I'm sure it's a lot to take in especially at

[00:05:25] a show is huge and monumentous is the 10th anniversary as well. Yeah that's yeah never in my wildest dreams like I yeah I didn't think I was going to get in so that was also that was a surprise too when I got in and then it was

[00:05:38] like just I don't know it's amazing. Well Candice thank you very much for talking with me today and again congratulations on your win very well deserved and we hope to hear more from you. Awesome thank you so much.