Ithaca teen models in New York, L.A. fashion shows of Elmira designer

When Lily Dean stepped onto the runway, she silenced the backstage chaos of New York Fashion Week.

She didn’t notice the gaze of the audience as she strode down the Sony Hall runway or even the pulsing flash of photographers. All she saw, Lily recalled, was bright white light.

It was Lily’s first time in the city, her first time as a runway model. But as the Ithaca High School junior walked, she remembered what her mentors from the Elmira Fashion Club taught her: pick a point and focus on it.

Her mind was calm as her eyes — edged in carefully drawn eyeliner and dramatically long lashes — looked ahead. When she reached the end of the runway, she intuitively paused for a few practiced poses, moving her body with confidence to show off the short black dress she wore.

“I couldn't tell you anything about how many people were there, or the color of the room,” Lily said. “People can tell like when you're overthinking it or you're thinking about how you're walking so I just tried to not think as much.”

She didn’t even notice her dad standing on the side of the runway, proudly capturing video of his daughter's runway debut.

More: What David's Bridal bankruptcy means for Horseheads store, Southern Tier customers

For subscribers: Students in grades 3-8 will soon face new state tests. What to know about the tests

Public safety: If your missing child ran away from home, the police may not look for them.

Ithaca teen model's career dream emerged after loss

Sixteen-year-old Lily refers to her father, Andrew Dean, as her best friend.

“He’s a really good father,” Lily said. “There’s nothing we don’t tell each other.”

The father-daughter bond was forged in tragedy: when Lily was in elementary school, her mother Julee was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Lily, an only child, said that she and her dad “knew what was going to happen, so it made our relationship super strong.”

But Lily still felt the lingering effects of bullying and said she had feelings of anxiety and depression during her early teen years. She struggled with remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I had a lot stuff going on at home,” she said.

Julee Dean passed away in 2021, and Lily, by then in high school, said her mother's death prompted her to think about her own life’s direction.

“I was kind of just like, OK, what am I going to do with my life? What am I doing now?” she recalled.

Looking to fit in with her peers, Lily joined the lacrosse team. Her dad and his girlfriend, Heidi Grap, cheered from the stands, but Lily feared the ball would come to her and often felt sick from nervousness during games.

Grap, the mother of a now 20-year-old daughter, wanted to help. Noticing Lily’s interest in art and fashion, Grap contacted a close friend who works in the fashion industry and was running a club in Elmira for anyone interested in a fashion career.

Dean and Grap accompanied Lily to the Ernie Davis Center in Elmira for her first Fashion Club meeting and watched as she carefully cut out photos from magazines to create her own style board.

“And that's where things just started going up and up for her,” said Grap. “She wasn't having depression and the anxiety was going away.”

Soon Dean, a paramedic supervisor with Bang’s Ambulance, was shuttling Lily to Elmira for weekly fashion club meetings, spending hours waiting patiently as his teenage daughter began to imagine her future.

'It’s about women being confident with their bodies'

At Ithaca High School, Lily excelled in design class. Outside of school, she joined the non-profit Runway For a Cause and completed an internship at the Mary Durham Boutique, a gently-used clothing store run by the Women’s Opportunity Center.

Last September, Lily was among several young women from the area invited to model in New York Fashion Week for Just Be 72.

Just Be 72 was founded by Elmira native Margaret Evette and her daughter, Lauren Lucy. The brand’s message, Evette said, is to encourage positive self-esteem in women.

“It is about more than just selling clothes,” said Evette. “It’s about women being confident with their bodies and who they are.”Evette, who now lives in California, got her start in fashion at age 16, when she was cast for Tommy Hilfiger’s first fashion show at the Clemens Center. A mother of three grown children and a grandmother, Evette said that when she founded Just Be 72, she knew that she wanted to include young women from the Southern Tier in her runaway shows.

After a successful New York Fashion Week last fall, Evette flew several Elmira Fashion Club models to California for Los Angeles Fashion Week in March. She said it was an easy decision to choose Lily to open the show in a striking orange dress.

“All the girls are beautiful,” said Evette. “But it’s Lily’s style and confidence, the way she presents the clothes. She knows what she is doing and it’s effortless.”

After New York Fashion Week debut, Lily Dean is fashioning her future

Far from the runways of New York and L.A., Lily is refining her style, designing her own clothes and scouring Ithaca thrift shops for one-of-a-kind finds. She’s active in extracurricular activities, including yearbook and a project to start upcycling community closet donations. She has been invited to model in Paris Fashion Week next fall, and said she’s thinking of attending the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City for college to pursue a career in fashion communication.

Lily is also a brand ambassador for Just Be 72, promoting the line on social media. Grap says that Evette has become “like family.”

“Some of the other designers are very caught up in ‘You have to look this way, you have to act a certain way'," said Grap. "But we know Margaret and we know Lily is always safe."

Lily said attending the Elmira Fashion Club has given her confidence and direction.

"It just took finding the right thing," said Lily. "Now I feel a lot different. That's a good thing because I'm finding my own independence, my own competence. I'm paving the way and I'm taking some of my friends with me."

Follow Kate Collins on Twitter: @kcollins213. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on Ithaca Journal: Ithaca to NY Fashion Week: How fashion helped teen cope after loss