IRENE ROCHA, IN THE NEWS

The Importance of Tailors in Las Vegas in Making Fashion Statements by George Siamitras 07/19/2013

Every fashionist know that the secret in making a style statement and being unique is in draping an attire which would enhance their overall look. Like anything else, the fashion statement made by celebrities has greater influence as they are dressed perfect for any occasion - public or personal jaunts.

Celebrities and their Fashion

The apparels worn, anything from jeans, T-shirts, evening gowns, tuxedos, blazers, by the famous people is tailor-made for them. Traditionally, vast majority of the people had either their own clothing line or seamstresses or tailors to customize or alter their dresses. They check if it fits on the widest place and seemingly alter it to their perfect size.

The dresses that are worn on the fashion parades such as Miss World, Miss USA are even altered according to the frame of the person wearing it. For instance, in the recently concluded Miss USA pageant, Rocha the tailor in Las Vegas and owner of Tailoring and Alterations by Irene Rocha, worked on the whole body dress alteration of the winner Erin Brady. She was quoted saying that the work was intrinsic as Brady' size was zero and had to remove the beads and place it in appropriate places.

Getting Stitched in Las Vegas

Following the footsteps of the celebrities, many people are now turning towards to customizing their dresses and feel happy about trying any dress size as they know well that these could be altered to their preferences and frame. Most people prefer to chance upon the tailors in Las Vegas as they feel that the dress that they buy off the rack does not fit them as is.

The specification of the suits and dresses are different and may even be region specific. Many British people living in Las Vegas prefer to wear suits that are tailored to fit like tight fitting jackets.
The tailors in Las Vegas inherit the knowledge of altering and tailoring clothes like custom suits, shirts, formal wears for men and women. They also provide alterations to wedding dresses, uniforms, all of which are done by a master tailor. They also provide with shirts that range up to 12 exacting measurements and finely finished with single needle sewing that after which the customers could customize the parts fitting their sizes.

In summary, the secret to any fashion statement begins with a perfectly fitting size.

Georges Tailoring and Co is a full Tailor service provider in Las Vegas and Henderson, NV. We welcome any garment that needs tailoring or alterations. We can make a simple hem on pants, completely resize a wedding dress or custom tailor a fine suit.

Danbury tailor altered glittery gown for Miss USA  by Sandra Diamond Fox   06/20/2013

When Irene Rocha's boss at Ridgeway Cleaners in Stamford came over to her earlier this week with a copy of the Advocate of Stamford, Rocha was surprised.

On the front page was a large photograph of the newly crowned Miss USA, Erin Brady, of East Hampton, Conn.

Brady was wearing something that looked very familiar to Rocha -- the evening gown she tailored.

"My boss said `Look Irene. Isn't this the woman whose dress you just worked on?' I was very excited," said Rocha, a Danbury woman who, in addition to being a tailor at Ridgeway Cleaners, is owner of Tailoring & Alterations by Irene Rocha at 255 Main St., Danbury.

At last Sunday's Miss USA pageant at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Brady wore a gold-and-white Sherri Hill gown covered in hundreds of Swarovski crystals. According to Tiffany Delmonico, of New Milford, Brady's coach and owner of Professional Pageant Development, a private coaching business, Brady's gown is valued at $7,000. It was provided to Brady by The Crowning Touch, a pageant boutique in New Bedford, Mass. Delmonico, who is a recruiter for the Miss Connecticut USA Pageant, sent Brady to Rocha.

The tailoring Rocha performed on Brady's dress was quite complex.

"It was a whole-body alteration. The hardest part was working with the beads since they are so little," said Rocha, adding Brady is a size "0."

"To take in the dress, I had to remove all the beads and sew them back in the right place. You can't use a sewing machine; you have to do it by hand," Rocha said.

Brady is pleased with how her dress came out.

"Irene was amazing. She took my dress just days before leaving for Vegas and made it fit me to the T," said Brady, 25, who lives in East Hampton. "She was a pleasure to work with and I was so grateful she was able to help me as quickly as she did."

While Rocha, 51, opened her second-floor walk up shop on Main Street in 2009; she has been a tailor for 20 years. She learned the trade while in college in her native Brazil.

Rocha has tailored dresses for other pageant contestants, including Miss Connecticut Teen USA, Kendall Leary; former Miss Connecticut Teen USA winners Samantha Sojka and Alyssa Taglia, and former Miss Hartford County, Brittany Decker. Bethel's Debbie Rizzo, a certified Miss America judge, praised Rocha's abilities. "I've used a lot of tailors and Irene can do anything to any article of clothing. In 2009, she tailored my daughter Kristi's dress. Kristi was among the top 10 finalists in the Miss Connecticut USA Pageant," Rizzo said. "Irene took the dress in two sizes. If you see it, you would never know any work was done on it. It fit my daughter like a glove."

Rocha is tailoring a new dress for Leary, which she plans to wear when she competes in the Miss Teen USA Pageant in the Bahamas in August.

"This dress has a lot of lace work," Delmonico said. "The tailoring involves taking the entire dress apart and reapplying all the intricate pieces to it."

Rocha said she especially loves working on difficult dresses. "They make me excited. I like the challenge," she said. "When it's a pageant dress, it has to be perfect."

Miss USA shares fashion, beauty tips and more  by Sandra Diamond Fox   10/24/2013

In June, America watched as Erin Brady became the first Miss Connecticut to be crowned Miss USA. And in a few weeks, they'll once again get to see Brady in a pageant -- only this time it will be a much larger one -- the Miss Universe Pageant.

The 5-foot-8, 115-pound, hazel-eyed beauty will compete against more than 80 stunning women from around the world at the pageant, which will be on Saturday, Nov. 9, in Moscow.

Brady has been preparing for her big day by keeping herself healthy and fit. "From Monday to Friday I work out at the gym, doing light weight lifting and cardio," said Brady, 25, who grew up in East Hampton and, since becoming Miss USA, now lives in Manhattan.

She also makes it a point to drink eight glasses of water a day and get about six to seven hours of sleep every night.

Brady, who has brown hair, shared some makeup tips, one of which is to "Keep it very simple. Highlight the parts of your face you think you look best in."

For her lips, she prefers plum and deep red colors. "If you wear a bright lip, try to tone down your eyes. I have hazel eyes and olive skin so I choose gold and brown undertones for my eye shadow, or sometimes I do a purple or green shadow if I want to pop my eyes."

On fashion, she said it's important to "find your own style. Wear clothes that flatter your figure. It's not about being stick thin. It's about being comfortable and confident. If you walk out wearing a paper bag, but you wear it well and proudly, people will look at you and say `Wow, that looks great on you.' "

The gold-and-white Sherri Hill gown Brady wore when she was crowned Miss USA was tailored at Tailoring & Alterations by Irene Rocha in Danbury. Brady plans to wear the gown again during her three-week stay in Russia.

She said she feels her strong interest in finance sets her apart from what many people might think of when they imagine a beauty queen. She has a bachelor's degree in finance and prior to becoming Miss USA, she worked as a financial accountant at Prudential Financial in Hartford. "Now all those girls who are great in science and math can say `Wow, I can be a beauty queen, too,' " she said.

In the short time she's been Miss USA, Brady has already had many meaningful experiences -- one of which was a visit to the Wounded Warrior Project, which helps raise awareness for the needs of injured service members.

"I spoke with men and women no older than myself who just got back from the war. Many had prosthetic or missing limbs. Others had stitches and scars on their face. Yet, they were all so positive. From them, I learned no matter what you're going through, be lucky you're alive and here to experience all that lies ahead for you."

"Erin is extremely genuine. She really makes it a point to get to know everyone she meets personally," said Tiffany Delmonico of New Milford, a pageant consultant who helped prepare Brady for her Miss USA competition. "She is a 25-year-old woman who has been in the corporate world. She's a nice combination of trendy and classy."

Brady said she feels beauty pageants are still relevant today -- and will always be. "They promote women and confidence and beauty. Beauty is different for every person. It's all about being confident and comfortable with who you are and in everything you have to offer."

Miss USA Erin Brady

She was the first Miss Connecticut to be crowned Miss USA.

She's 25 and grew up in East Hampton. She also lived in South Glastonbury and Portland. She graduated from Portland High School and Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. She lives in Manhattan.

Her fiancé, Tony Capasso, lives in South Glastonbury and works as a project manager. Her parents are Francis Brady, 55, of East Hampton, and Judy Krauth, 54, of Middletown. She has two sisters, Lauren Brady, 23, and Audrey Brady, 21.

The Miss Universe Pageant will air Nov. 9 at 9 p.m. on NBC-TV.

Fitting Miss USA's dress contest of its own  by Sandra Diamond Fox   06/20/2013

http://www.newstimes.com/default/article/Fitting-Miss-USA-s-dress-contest-of-its-own-4613456.php

Irene Rocha of Tailoring & Alterations by Irene Rocha in her sewing room with various colored thread on Main Street in Danbury. Wednesday, June 19, 2013

When Irene Rocha's boss at Ridgeway Cleaners in Stamford came over to her one morning this week with a copy of The Advocate, Rocha was in for a huge surprise.

On the front page was a large photograph of the newly crowned Miss USA, Erin Brady. Brady was wearing something very familiar to Rocha -- the evening gown she had recently tailored.

"My boss said `Look Irene. Isn't this the woman whose dress you just worked on?' I was very excited," said Rocha, a Danbury resident who, in addition to being a tailor at Ridgeway Cleaners, is owner of Tailoring & Alterations by Irene Rocha at 255 Main St., Danbury.

At the Miss USA pageant, which was Sunday at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Brady wore a gold and white Sherri Hill gown that was covered in hundreds of Swarovski crystals.

According to Tiffany Delmonico, of New Milford, Brady's coach and owner of Professional Pageant Development, a private coaching business, Brady's gown is valued at about $7,000. It was provided by The Crowning Touch, a pageant boutique in New Bedford, Mass.

Delmonico, who is a recruiter for the Miss Connecticut USA Pageant, sent Brady to Rocha.

The tailoring Rocha performed on Brady's dress was quite complex.

"It was a whole-body alteration. The hardest part was working with the beads, since they are so little," said Rocha, adding Brady is a size "O."

"To take in the dress, I had to remove all the beads and sew them back in the right place. You can't use a sewing machine; you have to do it by hand," Rocha said.

Brady was pleased.

"Irene was amazing. She took my dress just days before leaving for Vegas and made it fit me to the T," said Brady, 25, who lives in East Hampton. "She was a pleasure to work with and I was so grateful she was able to help me as quickly as she did."

While Rocha, 51, opened her second-floor walk-up shop on Main Street in 2009, she has been a tailor for 20 years. She learned the trade while in college in her native Brazil.

Over the past few years, Rocha has tailored the dresses of other pageant contestants, including Miss Connecticut Teen USA Kendall Leary, former Miss Connecticut Teen USA winners Samantha Sojka and Alyssa Taglia, and former Miss Hartford County Brittany Decker.

Bethel resident Debbie Rizzo, a certified Miss America judge, praised Rocha's talent.

"I've used a lot of tailors and Irene can do anything to any article of clothing. In 2009, she tailored my daughter Kristi's dress. Kristi was among the top 10 finalists in the Miss Connecticut USA Pageant," Rizzo said. "Irene took the dress in two sizes. If you see it, you would never know any work was done on it. It fit my daughter like a glove."

Rocha now is tailoring a new dress for Leary, which she will wear for the Miss Teen USA Pageant in the Bahamas in August.

"This dress has a lot of lace work," Delmonico said. "The tailoring involves taking the entire dress apart and reapplying all the intricate pieces to it."

Sandra Diamond Fox is a freelance writer in Connecticut; Sandraifox@aol.com