Pamela Thompson is one of the brightest stars to emerge from New York City's Fashion Scene. Pamela came to NYC from Chicago to launch her career in Fashion Design. Throughout the years Pamela has worked for some of the industries most notable fashion designers.
Pamela was Head Designer at Betsey Johnson (4 yrs), designing some of Betsey's best selling dresses and sportswear. After leaving Betsey Johnson, Pamela was hired as Head Designer for Heatherette (2 yrs), where she took the label from a press sensation, to a fun, wearable and saleable Collection. Pamela also continues her collaboration with Anna Sui since 1999, working on various graphic tee shirt designs for her Collection. Pamela currently works freelance as a designer for various labels, many of which are start ups looking for a seasoned designer with well rounded industry experience in all areas of small Designer business. Those companies include: GhoDho, Mott50, Lammily and Leo Burnett Interactive. Pamela's most recent collaboration was with Samung for their newest tablet. Her design is currently running in a 30 second spot on the Samsung billboard in Times Square in New York City. Pamela also has designed clothing sets for dolls including College Savings Doll, Hollywood Dolls and most recently designed the clothing sets for Lammily, the new realistic doll that is rivaling Mattel's Barbie.
In addition to working as a ghost designer, Pamela also had a few incarnations of her own Collections, including a line of streetwear called Space Girl, Lilytank and her own signature line and shop in NYC's East Village named Pamela Thompson.
Over the years, Pamela has dressed many notable celebrities including Kirsten Dunst, Paris Hilton, Avril Lavigne, Ashanti, Fergie, Jamie Lynn Siegler, Zoe Seldano, Lydia Hearst and Molly Sims.
Her designs have sold to major department stores including Henri Bendel, Bloomingdales and Nordstroms, as well as specialty stores throughout the US, Europe and Tokyo. Her designs have been featured in over 10 Women's Wear Daily issues (2 covers), The New York Times, Italian Vogue, Elle, W, Nylon, Cosmopolitan, Paper Magazine, In Style, Teen Vogue, Lucky, Allure and Fashion.net. Pamela's designs have also been presented in over 10 separate fashion shows, during NY's fashion week. in addition, Pamela was featured in the book Creative Careers in Fashion by Debbie Hartsog.
Pamela is currently available to work via freelance telecommute in all areas of design including; fashion design, graphic design, small business consulting, tech packs, illustration, fabrication, trend research, pre-production etc.
While working at Heatherette, Dollhouse, Betsey Johnson and for her own line, Pamela also got the chance to create graphic designs for tee shirts, textiles, accessories, labels, hangtags, packaging and web sites etc.
Most notably, Pamela was responsible, with her husband David23, for creating and maintaining Anna Sui's first website from it's launch in 1999-2009. Pamela also continues her collaboration with Anna Sui since 1999, working on various graphic tee shirt designs for her Collection.
In August 2012, Pamela's graphic work was featured in Martin Dawber's book Modern Vintage Illustration.
Pamela's newest personal business venture is an online shop she created called Tiny Frock Shop, a magical high fashion playground for anyone who enjoys fashion and dolls. Pamela’s love of vintage clothes, her high end fashion design experience and her love of play combined seamlessly to create a place where pre-loved Barbie clothing and accessories are presented as Vogue worthy but sold at milk money prices. Tiny Frock Shop not only provides the market with a place to purchase inexpensive fashionable resale 12” doll clothes, it also promotes recycling, inspires play, allows parent and child one on one time to connect. In addition, the shop features mini-shops and trend forecasting straight from the runways of Paris, Milan, London and New York all the while taking a tongue in cheek look at how the fashion industry actually works with model profiles and behind the scenes imagery and info.The shop currently consists of Barbie and 12” doll clothing, accessories, furniture, housewares,and Ken/mens 12” doll clothing, fully editorial styled dolls for purchase, as well as signature Designer clothing and accessories.
Pamela tried her had at creating artwork shortly after 9/11 as a way of dealing with the enormous gravity of that catastrophic day. She has learned that art is a creative outlet that has no limits. In art there are no rules, no sizes to fit, no washing instructions, and no gender boundaries to adhere to.
Pamela's first assault on the art world was with an exhibition of her 3 dimensional boxed pieces, at a gallery show sponsored by Concept Management Group, LTD in August, 2002. Pamela was written up in Women's Wear Daily with rave reviews. Other events she participated in was a show in association with TOAST - The Tribeca Art Walk, and featured a number of young artists whose pieces were available for sale during the five day show. Pamela was also accepted as a Finalist for the International Young Artist show sponsored by Artlink at Sotheby's where her work was set to be displayed in Moscow, Amsterdam and Tel-Aviv. Pamela's artwork was part of a collective in the Chelsea Arts Building in September of 2004, as part of City Found. From there, Pamela's work was picked up by gallery owner Laurence Assaraf, who owns A Taste of Art in Tribeca NYC.
Pamela has also spent much of her career helping others. Her website is one of the few that shares the "ins and outs" of the fashion industry. Pamela has always felt fortunate in her career and never hesitates to help answer questions asked by a student or future fashion designer. Pamela personally answers all email from students about the design market and if asked, gives guidance to them on their own career path. Pamela hopes to be able to give back even more by writing a book for young up-and-coming designers and students, which will answer many questions that students have asked her over the years.