WENDY DEFEUDIS brings more than 15 years of experience in fashion illustration and design, marketing, and public relations to VeryWendy Designs (646.522.0604), the business she launched in 2002. The majority of her business is event-related, which means she’s often on-site creating fashionable illustrations, clothing, and promotional pieces for a wide variety of clients. We checked in on the recent transplant to learn a bit more about her services and background.
WHEN DID YOU RELOCATE TO MIAMI AND WHY? I came to Miami in April. I wanted to leave New York and was looking for a fun, fashionable, artistic place to continue my business. Miami is so hot and happening now, I thought, why not? I really believe my company has a lot of potential to succeed here.
WHY EVENTS? My business migrated to the event arena when I was asked to create my art on-site at a party for W magazine, Macy’s, and Jones New York. It turns out that people truly love to watch the process of art unfolding as much as they like the end result. When I received such an overwhelming response to creating art at parties, I began to focus my marketing in that direction.
WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT DOING WHAT YOU DO? This may sound corny, but the best thing I do with my art is make people happy. All of my work is customized and personalized. I try to capture the essence of my customer in a fashionable, creative, and fun way. What I’ve discovered is that everyone loves to see themselves drawn like they’ve just come off their favorite designer’s runway! My training in Milan, Italy, adds a real fashionable element to my art that my customers love. I immortalize them as gorgeous, thin, cool, and contemporary—and who wouldn’t love that?
HOW IS THE BUSINESS DIFFERENT HERE FROM IN NEW YORK? I’m just beginning to get a taste for the business here, so I think it’s too early to make any kind of judgment on that right now.
WHAT’S THE BREAKDOWN IN JOBS—EVENTS, CARDS, COMMISSIONED ART? My business now is approximately 75 percent events. It didn’t start out that way, but that’s how it has evolved. I really enjoy doing events because each one of them is different, dynamic, and fun, and I can tailor my work accordingly. For example, when I did a luncheon at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, I created hand-painted custom T-shirts, chose beautiful organza and grosgrain ribbon to adorn the sleeves, and packaged them in lime green and pink origami boxes. At an event at Salvatore Ferragamo’s Americana Manhasset store, I drew fashion illustrations of customers with the clothes they were purchasing at the event. They would put the clothes on, and I would capture them in the moment. Each customer left with a framed picture of themselves in Ferragamo clothing. It was great! I love being creative and coming up with unique ideas to enhance an event.
FUTURE PLANS? I would like to be hired as a fashion illustrator to create advertisements for fashion design houses. Being commissioned by Dolce & Gabbana to draw an ad for the next collection that will appear in Vogue would be great! There is some illustrated art right now in that area, but not much. I would also like to develop VeryWendy as a brand and create a private label selling custom clothing. My training in Milan was originally for fashion design and garment production, which is where my true passion lies.

— Bobby Killgore

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